Routine and Rhythms: Our New Morning Lotto Charts

Nature has rhythms.  Life does, too.  But, somehow, we keep getting off beat here at Jammies School. 

To help us get back in tempo, I was planning to simply resurrect our Wake-Up Time and Daily Rhythm Charts, which remained effective until cards began to go missing.  However, as I was about to click “print” in order to make replacement cards, Jack scooted across the floor.

 

“Ah!” I realized.  No need for our newly mobile Jack to be gnawing at cards that might get dropped on the floor.  Nope.  A revised system was in order!

 

Thus, the kids and I spent yesterday morning creating and giving a trial run to our new Morning Lotto Cards.  I made the main framework for each card and, then, Luke and Nina sat on my lap to select their own images from Microsoft Office clip art to personalize their own cards.  (They helped Mommy make one for herself and insisted on making one for Jack, too.)  

 

 We hung our Morning Lotto Cards in the hallway in page protectors and put them to inaugural use by “x”ing things we had already done that morning and “o”ing things we had yet to do with a dry erase marker.

 

You should have seen how motivated those x’s and o’s made the kids to complete their current morning routines.

 

My hope is that we will go for coverall Lotto every day until our early morning rhythm gets back on track.  Then, I am going to roll the Lotto cards into a larger plan I have incubating to capitalize on Luke’s desire to earn some money and mine to have a better ordered home and more consistent habits for all.

 

I can also seem them working into kiddo workboxes and Momma workboxing when we get that set up down the line.

 

If you’d like to borrow our Morning Lotto Charts, you can simply click on the photo of each one below and it should come up with one large enough for you to print.   You’d just need to tape your own names and photos over the appropriate parts at the tops.  

 

 If a full-sized version does not come up, or if you would like a Publisher copy to adapt for your own use, simply leave a comment with your email address and I will try to upload one to send you via email.

 

(And, if you can give a simple tutorial on how to upload documents like this in a free, easy way at one of the document sharing sites, please do.  I have yet to get that technically savvy!)

 

Enjoy!

 

This post is being shared at 5 Minutes for Mom’s Tackle It Tuesday and We Are THAT Family's Works for Me Wednesday. Click on the links there to see other projects folks have been tackling and tips they've been sharing to make their homes and lives run more smoothly.  It is also being shared as a part of For Thy Sake: Teaching Children to Value Family Work.

DIY: Recycled CD Movement/Sensory Diet Spinners

Sometimes, we all need breaks from our many to-do's, right?  Well, I think I have discovered a tool to help us take such breaks here in our home while keeping moving -- literally:  Recycled CD Movement / Sensory Diet spinners!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had to make recycled gifts for our family Free Christmas gift exchange this past year.  So, for the older cousins and Mike, the kids helped me make recycled CD spinners inspired by the Independence Day ones at Family Fun.

1. To do so, for some of their cousin's spinners, Luke and Nina helped me rip up old calendar pages and glue them onto recycled CD's.  This calendar tearing and gluing, in fancy SPD/OT (Sensory Processing Disorder/Occupational Therapy)-Speak, is a good bi-manual task and motor planning activity.  In layman's terms, it is just plain old fun for young ones!
2. Then, for other cousins and for Daddy, they simply helped me think of four choices to write on the CD's.  Things like, "study", "snack", "socialize" and "sleep" for their college-age cousin and "yoga", "touchdown", "hallway relays" and "jumping mattress" for Daddy's (ideas for free active time together).  These spinners could then be used for spinner wars -- seeing whose knocked the other one down or stopped spinning last while getting visual input -- as well as for making decisions about what to do during spare moments.
3. From there, the kids watched -- and reluctantly practiced patience-- as I glued a marble to the circle inside each CD (as a device to make the spinners turn) and a plastic lid to the opposite side (as a handle).  
4. And, finally, they got to test the spinners out before wrapping them in recycled paper.

Since giving Daddy his spinner, the kids have enjoyed simply spinning it and watching it go round and round -- great for visual input -- as well as using it to decide what Movement/Sensory Diet activities (our speak, not theirs) to do during idle moments.

Now, as I write this, I am envisioning making more spinners with other choices on them -- and maybe some pictures instead of writing on them --for the kids.  Chore spinners.  Calming activity spinners.  Alerting activity spinners.  Rooms-to-conquer during Tidy Time or Family Work Time spinners.  You name it!  Such possibilities...  A fun to-do to tackle which will, in turn, give us impetus to take a break from to-do's.

Which will we make first (and when)?  Life will unfold and let us know.  In the meantime, we are curious, what type of spinner might you tackle making first?  Do share your ideas and let us know if you end up making some.  They're great fun!

This post is being shared at 5 Minutes for Mom Tackle It Tuesday. Check the links there for inspiration on tasks -- big and small, housework related and not -- that might inspire you!