New Mommy Tricks

I have bought chore organizers, printed sticker charts, made complicated laminated/velcro/cards/to-do and done charts, yelled, gave up and did it myself, and every other variation you can think of. I am exactly what Auntie Leila is talking about when she says she writes for

People who would rather be reading than cleaning. People with lots of other people around. People who will stop whatever they are doing to hear a good story. People who like children and dogs, at least in theory.

Go here to read that entire post. Love her blog.

We have always had our kids do chores, but we have not always had an easy, consistent way of doing that. Until  now.

Somewhere in blogland I read about Miracle Music. It seemed like a good idea, but a bit more complicated than we needed and I certainly wasn’t going to pay $40 for it. So I made my own version.

I plugged my little microphone in and recorded myself saying things like “time to make your bed!” and “go brush your teeth and brush your hair!” and “now put away all your clean laundry… in the CORRECT drawer.. and Viking, I will be checking!” in my most chipper mommy voice. I made an iTunes playlist and put songs between each job. I used upbeat piano instrumental music from a Vince Guaraldi CD. I have a playlist for morning jobs, noon jobs, and night jobs.

And it works. It does! It’s like a game to them. They go scurrying and we get the morning chores done in about twenty minutes and the evening chores in just under thirty.

Between this and our new homeschooling tool, my life just got a bit easier.