I recently went to a parenting night held by our local school board. It was called “Raising Children of Character: 10 Principles” by Dr. Thomas Lickona and it was absolutely outstanding!! If you have kids, I highly recommend checking out some of his books, or his website as they are FILLED with amazing parenting advice. This leads me to one of his points about character building through hard work. Now we are back to ORGANIZING!! Dr. Lickona recommended that each child in the house works, independent of any monetary reward (allowance), are to do one chore per year of age. I thought this was fantastic and the perfect way of teaching the kids to help around the house, as well as helping me let go! I could pick things that wouldn’t take very long and that I was confident they could do well enough that I could live with it!

I spent some time today making a chore chart for my kids and bought 1000 stickers at the dollar store last night so we should be all set. While I was at it, I made a list of most of things I also need to make sure I am doing on a daily basis, and funny enough, there were just as many things on my list as how old I am!! I can’t wait to get the kids started on their own habits tomorrow, as well as remembering all the things I want to do in the order in which they need to be done! I hope you take the time to look at Dr. Lickona’s site, or just make a chore chart for yourself (no stickers needed for you unless you really, really want them!), for your kids. You will soon all be working together for the goal of a tidy house while teaching your kids some great principles while you are at it. WIN WIN!! Good luck.

Additionally here is a site that offers examples of age appropriate chores to help spark your chore chart mania:  Ideas for age appropriate chores

This week we are continuing to talk about our New Year’s Resolutions for 2008. I thought it would be appropriate to talk about the greatest thing you can do to support your new and tidy ways this year! This idea is pretty simplistic, but I assure you that it will start your days off much better and brighter. Are you ready for it?

Make sure your house, specifically your kitchen is tidy before you go to bed (that’s it).

Sometimes when you are so tired, it is really tempting to go to bed and deal with it in the morning, but there is nothing better than waking up to a tidy house!! It is always worth the effort and makes your day so much brighter, and you can be so much more efficient when you accomplish this. You can deal with the start of a new day fresh - without dealing with yesterday’s mess! You will love the rewards of this minimal effort each evening. Please feel free to share your thoughts, challenges or triumph’s in this area. Good luck!