Empowerment Experience Month Two

Manners Month

After having such great success with the money jar and chores we moved onto manners. Why? Because we have a house full of boys. Need I say more? At some point the boys need to learn how to communicate well, speak politely, and eat in a non-vulturistic manner:)

I had such hopes going into this challenge. Our rules were fairly simple.
1. Look adults in the eye when spoken to and answer with a complete sentence.
2. Speak kindly to one another.
3. Table manners were enforced for the month. (For us that includes using forks and knives to cut food into bite sizes, feet on the floor, napkin on the lap, considerate conversation, not eating until the host/hostess sits down - boy this is tough for them, and clearing dishes when done).

The first rule was just a matter of remembering not to say uh-huh, nah, yep, etc. They did a great job in this area and learned how to speak more respectfully more often.

The second rule...speaking kindly to one another was a bit trickier. There is something about older and younger brothers and how they interact with each other. The teasing seems to be a mandatory part of everyday living and with teasing, comes the backlash of teasing. One way I tried to counter this was when they decided to be mean to each other I had them grab their scriptures and find a story about someone being mean. They need to read and tell me the result of that behavior. We then relate it to life and what that means to him. This tactic helped some, but I have to be consistent for it to work well. Needless to say, this is still a work in progress.

The last rule, table manners. I thought this would be so easy, but I was proven wrong. This is an area that I know can continue to be improved on. Simple things...eat with your utensils. Why my boys think it is so cool to eat with their hands and fingers and not cut anything is beyond me:) The noise level at dinner sometimes drives us a bit crazy. We talk about appropriate tones at dinner, not interrupting others as they speak, using napkins and such.

The prize for this challenge was to go and eat at a fancy restaurant. We failed this challenge as a family and did not get this prize. Food is a huge motivator for our boys...especially good food like sushi, steaks, etc. We are continuing to work on these things and will re-visit this challenge when we are ready to succeed.

Empowerment Experience

As an avid reader I came across a book that talked about taking the feeling of entitlement out of kids. In a nutshell, a mom decided to do an experiment in her home. She was hoping the end result would be less entitlement in her kids. As I read through her account I appreciated many things she was trying to do, but I felt I would do things different for my kids.

That is how our empowerment experience was born.

Empowering kids is teaching them that they are able to do things for themselves. It teaches them self-confidence and gives them opportunities to learn skills and to be better prepared for life. It teaches them the value of work. To realize that things won't be handed to them, rather they will need to work for them.

We are in month 2 of our empowerment experience in our home. Each month we focus on something that I have thought about and want to improve on or change in our home and attitudes.

Month One
Chores. Just the sound of the word makes me brace for the fight that is surely to follow. Chores. The word that sends children into the realm of grunting, moaning, sudden illness, begging, fighting. I can't tell you how many times I heard that so-and-so never had to do chores after school or how mean I was for making them pick up after themselves. Chores, the first thing on our empowerment trail.

We have always had chores for our children. Often times I would break down and help them (or do them) to get them done in a timely manner, to make sure they were done right or because they had so much going I felt they didn't have time. I realized that it was not okay for me to be doing this. Moms and dads...if we do this for our kids like I was, we rob them of the opportunity to know they can do it for themselves. We have to help them grow and learn rather than hold their hand the whole time and hinder them from learning the feeling of accomplishment with a good job done.

We have to first teach. Patiently teach them the correct way to do their chores. They will need to practice doing it right with positive feedback, then they can move forward with more independence.

We tried everything: kid bucks, charts with money rewards, charts with object rewards, punishments for not doing chores, magnetic chore charts, pick a chore buckets, getting mad...everything. Many things worked for several days or weeks but would eventually fizzle out. I needed to do something about this. My kids were definitely old enough to be doing their chores.

The money jar came to be.

Each of my children received a clear jar with a wide opening and a screw on lid. I stuffed each jar with 30 $1 bills. I gave them each this money up front (there were whoops of joy) along with expectations (not so many whoops). Our expectations are as follows:

1. Bed made
2. Nothing on the floor
3. No piles anywhere
4. Clothes hung up/put away
5. Bathroom floor free from clothes and towels
6. Bathroom counter cleared off

The kids were told that if they met the expectations nothing would be taken from their jars. I check their chores every morning before they leave the house. If they miss something and do not meet the expectations they lose $1 out of their jar. It is up to them to keep their chore money. 

It took one day for my child who I will call "tornado" to be on board and doing chores without me hounding. Yes, you heard me right...no hounding at all. It was a miracle! My youngest has only lost one dollar over the past 2 months. It is really incredible for me and them. I don't have to ask and ask. I simply say, "oops, you lost your dollar today." It is followed by "oh, man!" or "really?" Long gone are the comments like "not fair", or "no one else has to do this." And long gone is me losing my temper over something like chores. 

The rule is no one can touch the money until at the end of the month the money is removed from the jar and I refill it with 30 more $1 bills. It is a clean slate and they are motivated all over again. 

Our first month was a HUGE success! The tension in the home decreased and our children have begun to learn a valuable lesson about work and being self-reliant.

Roller Coaster Halloween Costume

So I am behind on my posts, but here is this year's Halloween costume. Roller coaster riders. 

I made the roller coaster out of cardboard, duct tape and pool noodles. We attached stuffed pants and shoes. the only downfall of this costume was the ability to really move around well, but they survived. 

Gratitude Activity

A Grateful Heart

As I was trying to think of something I could do to help my kids be thankful this November I came across an idea. I modified it a bit and this is what I came up with. (I did this with our young women group as well.)

 I made several of these little heart boxes. On both sides it says, "A Grateful Heart." Inside I put as many Hershey Kisses as would fit. I then told those participating that the idea is to learn to recognize and be grateful for someone when they do something nice for us. This can be done throughout the month of November, the week of Thanksgiving, or even Thanksgiving Day.

1. Recognize an act of kindness, service or likewise
2. Tell that person how much you appreciate what they have done for you
3. Present them with one of the Grateful Heart boxes and treats to show your gratitude
4. Write in your journal what that person did for you and why it touched you
5. Be quick to recognize future kindnesses and acknowledge them
6. Thank Heavenly Father for those acts of kindness towards you
7. Strive to be kind to others

YW Gratitude Journals

Grateful = The Quality of Being Thankful

 

What a great definition of grateful!

It is a quality that each one of us can develop in our lives.

In honor of Thanksgiving, this month I made a gratitude journal for each of our young women. This gratitude journal is somewhat like a smash journal. The idea is that it is a bit crazy with different shapes and sizes of paper, different colors and patterns, etc. 

 

I am happy to report that the girls adored the books :)

I included several quotes on gratitude, writing prompts about gratitude, a pocket containing scripture references about being grateful, and an LDS conference talk entitled  "O Remember, Remember" by Elder Henry B. Eyring. (Click on the title or here to view the talk on the lds.org website.) I shrunk it down and fit 4 on a page then folded each page in half and added it into the front of the journals. It is a 4 page talk.

 These books are a 4 x 6 size. I would recommend that as the smallest size or you can do a 6 x 6 to give them a bit more room to write. The first picture on this post is a 6 x 6 one that I made as a test run. It was less expensive to make the 4 x 6 and they were still cute.

 The idea behind these gratitude journals is that the girls write about as many things as they can throughout the month that they are grateful for. The girls were then asked to being their journals on a certain Sunday to share some of the things they had written.

 This is one of my favorite parts of the journal. It is a page with butterfly sticky notes that instructs the girls to write one thing they are grateful for about each member of their family on a sticky note and then put it on a mirror or door or somewhere that individual would see it.

 Learning to be grateful for that which we have is an important attribute to develop. Empowering the girls to see the good in their lives will help them recognize the hand of God in their life and that will bring peace and happiness.

For those of you interested, I used a machine "the Cinch" to bind the books. It worked like a charm:) Love my new toy.

May we all remember the things we are grateful for this holiday season and see the good in our lives!

Cecret Lake Hike

Cecret Lake in Alta, Utah is an easily accessible, short 1 mile hike. The nice thing about this hike is that hikers can drive most of the way to the lake. This makes it appealing to hikers with limited abilities such as small children or the elderly who still love getting outdoors. It is an alpine experience without having to hike a long distance. The hike itself starts out nice, easy, flat and gets a bit steeper the closer you get to the lake. This is a highly used trail so do not expect solidarity. Even with that caveat it is a wonderful family hike.

We decided to continue hiking and summit Sugarloaf Peak. Once you reach the lake, look across the water and you will see the trail continuing up the mountain towards the ski lift. When you get to the top you will lose the trail. The goal is to get to the top of the lift where you can once again find the trail located on the ridge between Sugarloaf and Snowbird's mineral basin. If you are unsure where that is, head over towards Snowbird to the view area. Once there look to the left up the small hill and you will find the trail that leads to the summit. It gets steep on loose dirt and rocks, but we all did it without any trouble. 

To get there: Head up Little Cottonwood Canyon until you reach Alta. There is an information booth and you will pass through the booth continuing up the mountain for a good 10 minutes. Stay on the road until it ends at a campground and there is a small parking lot off to the left. Park and then look for the trail that is marked on the southwest side of the lot. Follow the trail until you get to the lake.
There is limited parking so going on a weekday is ideal.

90 Day Clean Eating Challenge - Day 4

Menu Day 4 
Cinnamon swirl toast
Green tangerine smoothie
Bowl of clean eating rice cereal
1% milk
Clean eating French toast
Real maple syrup
1% milk
10 almonds
Apple
2 pieces dark chocolate

As you can see, although it was all clean, I didn't do all that well today. Some days are just going to be that way and this was one for me. Easy meals, not enough fruit and veggies. I found myself snacking all day instead of fixing good meaningful meals. Oh well, there's always tomorrow for the chef in me to come out:)