Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Night Before

T'was the night before school starts
And all thru the house,
Not a creature was stirring,
Except this wee mouse.
The floors and dishes were washed; 
The counters were clean,
A sweet breakfast was rising
While the children dream.
School supplies had been purchased,
New clothes were laid out.
The magnet board was revamped
To remind about...
The goals set with the parents
In an interview.
A few minutes with each kid,
One child; parents, two.
And new charts for morning chores,
Yes, Mom is so mean!
Prayers, eat, dress, hair, and practice,
Read scriptures and clean!
If kids finish with a smile
A sticker they get.
Weekly picks from the prize box,
Makes it all worth it!


My calendar is ready 
For madness to start.
We moms turn all this madness
Into our life's art.

11 comments:

Catherine Noorda said...

that is amazing. go girl.

The Robinson's said...

Very clever! I love this!!

Have a great 1st day of school!!

Take care.

Judy said...

SO cute!! Where did you get your calender??

Stephanie Waite said...

Judy,

My friend Shelli makes these calendars and sells them.

You can see my post on this calendar HERE: http://adailyscoop.blogspot.com/2010/07/favorite-things.html

You can contact Shelli for more information at shellibryan at yahoo dot com. Mention you saw them on my blog and she will give you a discount. She also will make different sizes and customize them if you want. Prices will vary according to what you want exactly.

Stephanie

Carrie said...

I have to ask where you got the chore charts? I have been searching for something for my girls and everything I have tried or found just didn't work. As always, I love your blog!

Stephanie Waite said...

Carrie,
I got the chore charts from Lakeshore learning store. They came with reusable stickers and a dry erase crayon. I found that the crayon was messy so i just used a sharpie to write on on my chores. I was pretty sure of which chores I wanted on the chart. We refined the chore chart last year pretty well. I like the happy face category. If the kids do their list without complaint and without me having to nag them to get to their list they get a happy category sticker. They have to fill in all the boxes each day including the happy face category each day to pick from the prize box.

Oh and I did use the sharpie to cut the boxes in half height wise. I needed more boxes because we do LOTS of morning chores before school :).

Melanie said...

I love this. You are awesome! Your last line is the perfect end to your poem, too.

Judy said...

Thank you so much Stephanie!!

My Garden of Eden said...

Stephanie,

Do you mind telling me where you got your white board calender? That is the best thing ever! You amaze me with how organized you are!!

Thanks!
Abbi
abbs_stamps@yahoo.com

Jonathan Waite said...

Attention perfectionist women,

Contrary to what it may seem, my wife is anything BUT organized (you notice how she has all these stories about praying for lost items??). That is why she has all these tools (calendar, schedules, etc.) to help her in this category.

I love you just the way you are Stephanie!! Jonathan

RockStarMomlv said...

Alright, girl, spill it! We all wanna know how you get your family organized like this. Especially me! Can you give details in your next post?? And I love the goals setting interviews with each kid. Love that! I totally stole your idea and I did it with my two older kids. They didn't really get it at first, but I'm going to make it happen every 6 months so we can review, and they get used to thinking like that. Awesome!