The Background Story:
On Friday Christian and I were driving home from school and he made a comment about how Daddy works all the time even when he has a day off he works (meaning he does stuff around the house). We talked about how important it is to learn to be a hard worker and how Daddy works hard because he loves our family and he wants to take care of us.
Christian's five year old little mind started working and he decided that we should have a surprise party for daddy to thank him for working so hard.
So that's just what we did!
We all wore party hats and Christian presented Ryan with a trophy for all his hard work!(The trophy is actually one of Ryan's baseball trophies that he got back in the 80's).
Look how proud Christian is of his daddy!
McKenna loved wearing her party hat! She's gathered up everyone's hat after the party and she's been playing with them for 2 days now.
Grandmom & PopPop came to the party (because they were actually already planning on being at our house, which was just perfect)! They were such good sports about keeping their hats on the entire time we ate dinner.
And these two friends were also invited to the party!We certainly do have a very special daddy around here. And I'm so thankful for the example of integrity and hard work that he sets for our kids.
Ryan's dad instilled a strong work ethic in each of his kids and Ryan and I have recently been discussing how it's time for Christian to learn to step up and take more responsibility around our house. We'll see how that goes! He's a little resistant to the idea :)
I'd love to hear how you handle chores at your house! Do your kids get an allowance? Just wondering :)
6 comments:
That is so sweet and observant of Christian! I have no advice regarding chores...I'll look to you for that ina couple years, :0)
That is such a fabulous idea! What a fun looking party. Anna :)
I love the party!
We just started allowance a few months ago and Ri is 11 and Regs is 8. They had to prove their responsibility with their chores for years before we started paying them. We really wanted them to understand that as family we work together to make the household function and there is a lot of give and take. Once we felt they understood this then we started paying.
They love their allowance and work hard for it now and even Scotty gets 50 cents for making his bed, taking out the recycles each day and running the dustbuster for me after I sweep each night. He gets it more because he sees the older ones getting paid but he is learning.
My college roommate (who is from your hometown, coincidentally) is so, so good at teaching responsibility to her three kids (ages 7, 6, 4). She has a chore chart (she was a teacher, also like you) and there are three categories on the chart (one is set the table and clear the plates, one is empty the trash cans and take out the recycling and I forget the other). They rotate those jobs every week. She also has charts on each kids' bedroom wall, so they know exactly what they need to do every morning before they come downstairs (take off PJs and put away, get dressed, make bed, brush teeth, etc.) I am still dressing Kate and reminding her a million times about things and my friends' kids are so organized (as is her house). I'm going to work on that this year.
My other college roommate has a chart for each kid, with 40 spaces on it. Every time the kids(ages 7 and 4) do a chore (empty the dishwasher, make their beds, feed the dog, etc.) they get a check in one of the boxes. When it is filled, they get a toy that is wrapped and waiting for them upstairs (they see it everyday, so there is incentive to work for it). But she's much more layed back about the chores and let's the kids take the initiative.
Sorry about the ridiculously long response, but this is something that is on my mind lately. I really want to help my girls (especially kate) to become more independent and to think for themselves/ handle responsibilities. Fingers crossed that we will see some improvement in this area in the coming year!
Oh...and Christian is so sweet to throw a party for his dad! Obviously you are doing something right :)
How fun! Natalie did that for Ben once--decorated and everything. Maybe we need to do that again!
Chores--still trying to find what works for us :(
Judy--I used to print chore charts for the kids from here. I would do Thomas for Wyatt and Princess for Natalie. You can customize them and we'd do simple stuff like pick up toys, brush teeth, etc.
http://www.dltk-cards.com/chart/chart2.asp
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