New Year!

On New Year's Eve we went to a friend's house for fun and games and a 10pm countdown.  Then we came home, put the kids to bed, and watched a movie.  Actually, my oldest was partying with her own friends and the next three oldest got to spend the night at their friend's house.  So they had a lot of fun and stayed up even later than I did!

I also enjoy the feeling of a new start that the new year brings! I am trying to let the stress go of what didn't get done in 2014 and look forward to doing better in 2015!   On December 27th I asked the kids if they would be mad if I put the Christmas tree away.  I'm all for leaving the tree and lights up for a while, but I couldn't help thinking of all the planning I needed to do for our homeschool and, for me, it was going to be easier to organize with Christmas stuff put away.

Among my planning was a search for incentive ideas.  I cannot be the only one motivated to do school work around here!  That makes for a very cranky mama!    There are differing opinions on rewards, but I tend to favor them.  After all, many things people do in life are based on what they will get in return (like getting a paycheck for working).

After much searching, I decided on some color-by-number pictures and printed one out for each child.  I then made a list of things I want the children to do (such as getting school work done and getting household jobs done) and then set an amount of spaces they can color on their picture when they accomplish the task. When their whole picture is colored in, they will receive an agreed upon reward.  We just started today!  I am excited to see how it goes!