Getting Started

I'm creating this blog here so I have some sort of accountability for my plan. My plan is kind of a change in parenting style.

I am a stay-at-home mom to 5 kids, 4 boys and a girl. I will be the first to admit that I'm pretty lazy when it comes to parenting. Yes, I'm the mom who lets her kids watch way too much TV and play way too many video games. But I've decided to change and give my kids more structure in their day before they all get too old for it to have any affect. My kids are all pretty good for the most part, but they definitely have their moments. It doesn't help when several of them have pretty strong ADHD tendencies. And with everything I've read about ADHD, having structure is important in helping them learn to control their impulses and focus when they really need to.

I'm just now starting to get my plan in place, but it's a work in progress and I'm sure we'll have adjustments along the way. I have sketched out a rough weekly schedule with times set for certain things, such as chores, reading/story times, and meal times. And two days a week we'll have Art Day, where we do an art project of some sort together, even if it's just coloring in some notebooks, and two days a week we'll have Music Day, where we do some sort of music activity, whether it be listening to music and dancing around the room, singing songs together, or banging on the pots and pans. One day a week we'll have an outing day where we will go do some activity, like going to the zoo or the park or a museum. It's not going to be big, and it's definitely not going to be expensive. I can't afford expensive. Free is best, but we'll go for cheap too.

We have a big white board that we're going to post on the wall in our kitchen with the schedule mapped out for the kids. So they'll be able to look at the board and know what the plan is to do at any time. And hopefully it will help keep me on track too. Of course, we will be flexible. Sometimes things end up taking more time than others, but I think if we try to stick to the structure as well as we can, it will end up working out well. It will probably be a bit of a trial at first though. Kids will rebel, Mom will want to play on the computer like she usually does, all that fun stuff. I think it will be better for us all this way though. It's worth a shot anyway, right?

So my plan is to post a daily entry at the end of each day with how things went: what worked and what didn't, reactions the kids had, all that. Feel free to comment any suggestions for things to do, any words of encouragement, things that have worked for you, or something that comes to mind. Please keep it clean and keep it kind. And enjoy.