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The summer is over and it is back to a more set schedule. School started last week, but this is the first full week and now we are really back to a set schedule of getting up early, the morning and evening routines and getting to bed at a set time. I am now getting up at 5:30 so I can get my walk and exercise in and then getting Stella up at 6:30, then it is getting dressed, morning chores, breakfast and then out the door by 7:20 to walk the couple of blocks to school.
After school, for at least the month of September – I walk to the school around 2:10ish, that is what time a teacher told me to be there and then home for a snack and homework. Stella then plays and I finish up “work”. Around 5:00 I start dinner and Stella does her evening chores, dinner on the table at 6:00, then dishes are done, homework checked and re-done if need be, bed time reading and then off to bed at 8:00. This year Stella is now allowed to read for 30 minutes and then lights out at 8:30.
During the summer, chores go to the wayside, somewhat, and Stella’s allowance is stopped. I figured I am paying for all the extras during the summer and consider that her allowance – going to the pool, ice cream, treats when we go on an outing, etc. With the start of school is also the reinstatement of chores and allowance. Stella and I sat down and put together the chore chart for this year and it is now hanging on the refrigerator so that she can check it off as she goes.
On Saturday, if chores were done throughout the week Stella get her allowance. Stella is 7, so after much research, I decided her allowance would be half her age – $3.50. On each birthday her allowance changes. She has 4 piggy banks – savings, bank, fun and charity. One dollar goes into each, savings, bank & fun, and then $0.50 into charity. The bank is for her bank account, savings if for something that she wants to save for and fun is for her to spend however she wants. The charity piggy bank is left up to her as to where she wants to put it – one time she gave to Unicef, another for a kids charity they were collecting for at school and another time she donated her money for the playground at the school she is now at. This system seems to work really well for us. I always love it when we are out and she wants something and I ask her did she bring her money, which most times is no and then it is, well can’t you buy it and I say no, but I will buy it for you and you can pay me back when we get home and then this is the best when she answers me this way – well I don’t want to waste my money on that. Really, it is okay for me to waste my money, but Stella can’t waste her’s?! Whatever the item is that she so desperately wanted usually stays on the store shelf.
Sunday’s are always the get ready for the week day. One of Stella’s chores this year is to pack her own lunch. Sunday afternoon I fill up 5 baggies with Pirate Booty or something along those lines, then I fill up 5 cups with apples sauce and depending on what fruit I bought for the week I will package that up into 5 – this all makes it a little easier for her to just grab and pack and less frustration all the way around.
It is really hard when school gets back to session – each year it seems to take me longer to get back to the routine! Drive carefully, school is open!
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