Our family left yesterday and that means it is back to reality for the Freeman family! I realize that if I am going to manage these four on my own I can't do it all. I need these boys to start pitching in and taking some responsibility. I was encouraged by The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook (that I referenced earlier). They place an emphasis on work being as important as academics. The Moore's say that it is good for children's self worth to know that they are an important, valuable and needed family member. One suggestion they make is to never do anything for your kids that they can do themselves. This is harder than it sounds! When dealing with a 6, 4, 2 and newborn a lot of times it is faster, easier and more efficient to just do it myself. And that's really what I've been doing the last 7 years. It's definitely time to change my ways.
I called a "family meeting" (first ever) yesterday evening. I explained to the boys that now that Grandma's gone I'm going to need them to be helpers and take responsibility. That means cleaning up their toys, putting their clothes away and working together to keep our home a nice place. We ended with high fives and enthusiasm. Well, within a half hour I heard Scott from the kids room, "What???!!!" I walked in to see Jude and Ezzy with a pile of side walk chalk. Chalk was mashed in and all over the entire floor and bed. Somehow I don't think they got my message!
This morning - my first day on my own - Kai was very enthusiastic about helping out. He is a kid who thrives on praise and verbal reinforcement. He really loves to make me happy. He did the breakfast dishes, made his bed and straightened his room without even being asked. Wow - off to a great start! It was harder to motivate Ezzy and Jude to put away the cars that they dumped all over the living room. They finally were motivated because they wanted to have music but I wouldn't let them get their instruments out until they cleaned up.
For music we put on Veggie Tales Worship. The boys danced and played instruments through 1/2 the CD. This is a little embarrassing and probably hormonal but as I sat there holding Koa I was tearing up a little bit! I just enjoyed watching them and taking a few minutes to close my eyes and give thanks and praise to God for being with me, loving me and being my friend. I've been having some "baby blues" the last few weeks and it was just a moment of realizing God is with me and it was comforting. Funny how God can reach us in just about any moment.
The rest of the day progressed pretty smoothly. The boys did chalk drawings (on a chalkboard this time) and played while I folded laundry. They put their stacks of clothes away. When they got hungry I didn't let them eat until they put everything away. Then I got out this book that I just got - it's pretty cool. We read a pretty large amount of it about simple machines, different kinds of matter and energy. The other boys drifted off to play but it held Kai's attention very well. Scott surprised me by coming home at 2! So my first day on my own was a short one, thankfully.
So, I was really nervous about this day, but it ended up being good. Overall I feel happy that these boys are home with me. I like having them here and I like spending time with them (even though Jude was tantruming from about 3:00 on - fun times - that's a whole other blog post). I'm feeling pretty optimistic right now. We'll see how we do tomorrow!
p.s. if anyone has suggestions or ideas about getting young children to clean up after themselves, I would love to hear from you!
