Pick A Stick

This summer I did my own variation on Jill's popsicle stick jobs. (sorry, for some reason I can't link directly to that particular post. It's her June 25, 2009 post if you're interested.) I need to post about it to help me to remember what worked and what didn't, so I can adjust for next summer. I'm also thinking about how to incorporate it during the school year too.

This is the morning routine I set for each day. They did really pretty well with it, though in the past 2 weeks they have "forgotten" about it. Doesn't help that I've been sleeping in a little longer than them this week so I'm not there to reinforce the schedule. Oops!
I decided to have them read right after waking then they can just stay cozy in bed and get it done. My kids do not love reading I am very sad to say. They enjoy it once they are doing it, but getting them to stop some other activity to go read is like pulling teeth. Sometimes I'd find them still reading in bed an hour after they woke up this way. :) Yea!

Then there are the sticks. Green end up means you can pick it, green end down means it's been done. Each kid had their own cup of jobs. The girls and Kobe had similar items to choose from.
Make dinner

Clean something-toilet, dust, vacuum, load dishwasher, load of laundry

Do a blog post

Read a book to Jackson

Play basketball for 30 min.

Play Wii with Jackson for 20 min.

Write a letter

Do school review work

Go get ice cream

Go for a walk

Work on a Church goal

Clean out room of either small clothes, toys, or old school supplies

Make a dessert to give away

Make a dessert for the family

I thought that this would be a good balance of enjoyable and less enjoyable activities. Today I asked the kids to evaluate how this worked. They said there wasn't enough fun stuff in there. As I review the list now, I don't think it's too bad. I do think I might move one or two to their daily routine, like school review work. I also think I'd put less sticks in the cup, maybe just 5 and repeat those for a couple of weeks, then start a new batch of 5- being sure to include at least one fun thing a week. The only one they thought was fun was getting ice cream. I was also pretty good about having an outing of some kind each week like trips to Niagara Falls, Palmyra pageant, Michigan, over to the elementary school to play on the playground, to a play at ArtPark, and to Cleveland to meet David Archuleta!! THAT was fun wasn't it?! :)

It was also difficult for me if more than one kid had a stick that I needed to help them with. I only have so many hands and so much time in a day. I need to think about how to handle that situation. Maybe mark the mommy-needs-to-help-me jobs in a different way so I have only 1 picked a day.

Jackson's were all someone-needs-to-help-me jobs.

Make your bed

Practice writing a letter

Read a book

Do a puzzle

Play a game

Practice Speech

Practice PT

Practice OT

I think I should continue doing this daily with him since he will only be at preschool in the mornings. We could pick a stick after lunch... and then I'd know I had time to work with him one on one!

I think it's reasonable to continue this at least on Saturdays for the older kids. Give them a little routine since we are so bad at having any kind of Saturday routines around here.

Overall I think this program worked for us and I will tweak it a little and use it full force next summer too- even though I will have a daughter about to enter HIGH SCHOOL at that point!! AHH!!

Thanks for the inspiration Jill!