Mornings...

clip boards hold weekly check lists

Kids fill in a circle each morning after they complete their check list

weekly reminders of where kids have to be on which days are kept on their check list

Many have asked about our morning routine. Though I've used this method for a few years now, we have bugs to work out whenever school begins again. This year in particular, with Mason leaving for school almost an hour before the others, we are accepting the fact that mornings are shorter for him and therefor less productive. But as we've gotten into the groove we are finding that the system works well for our family...Here's how it goes;

John and I get up early. Too early if you ask me. But if we don't rise an hour or so before our children then we don't get any exercise. John also uses this time to read scriptures and have quiet time to himself. We burn the candle at both ends, so so mornings we are stone still asleep when the alarm goes off. ugh.

Mason is up around 6. Mason is slow in the mornings. While he has over an hour to do the jobs on his list, he barely makes it past "eat and make your lunch". Oh, and he takes a shower too. And bless him for being clean (stinky teenager ;) I do appreciate that Mason's room is straight nearly every day. The main thing I'd like to see him do is manage his weekly job (to contribute to the family) and remember to feed his dog!

The other kids are hoisted out of bed for scriptures at 6:40 a.m. This is so John and Mason can be with us for family scripture study. Because I know you are wondering; we get the kids out of bed beginning in kindergarten. Though Molly and Lucy are usually the only children who come to scriptures of their own constitution, we don't "get them up" until they go to public school. We drag, cojole, piggy back and brow beat our other children to the library to sing, pray, recite scripture and study the word of God for 15 minutes of our lives each day.

Then, Mason and John are off to their daily grind and the others try to blaze through their check lists before heading off to school. They have enough time to get their 6 daily assignments done before they go, but it is rare right now that they do. I often find them in the recesses of our basement curled up in a blanket and a book instead of dutifully making their beds...but we are working on some motivational tools to help them see the value of getting the work done before choosing more leisure time-takers. For example, Porter now earns the time he gets to spend playing video games on Friday. 10 minutes for every day the chore list gets done before school. And minutes can be taken from his accrued time if he throws a fit about his jobs or if he goes back to bed after scriptures (which has happened many times!)

The only other "family responsibility" we demand of our children during the week is their dinner night. I've mentioned once before that one night a week one of our kids is in charge of helping me cook, present, and clean up the dinner. It is a long night for them, but we get to spend a lot of time together and I get to train and teach valuable life skills like cooking, serving others before oneself, and doing dishes ;). Oh, and Mason does his own laundry every Friday. That future college kid and missionary needs to know how to clean his clothes, and it will take some time for him to get that down to an easy science...

What are your morning routines? Do you do early work outs before your kids wake up, or do you somehow magically fit that in after they are gone to school? Are chores part of your kids' day? I'd love to know how other families do it. Leave me a comment.

Some might say we expect a lot of work out of our kids. And they are right. There are few families I know