Organizing Archives - Page 11 of 14

DIY Bathroom Tips for Little People

October 30, 2012 by Jules 2 Comments

I have 2 recently potty trained girls {4 and 2.5} and a 21-month-old running right behind them! Life is hectic and I feel like I can easily drop balls all over the place if I'm not creative.

One of the most recent biggest struggles with my girls being potty trained {and them taking themselves- HAA-lleluiah} is getting them to complete all the steps of using the restroom. Elmo's Potty Time anyone?

I am constantly reminding them to wash their hands. I can often be heard hollering through the house, "Did you flush? Wash your hands!" If and when they do complete these last two steps, THIS is what I find:

Yep! That's a yellow colored counter top and sink. I know....

I'm over at Sidetracked Sarah's today sharing some tips that will hopefully help your littles with their independent hand-washing while keeping them from making more messes for you busy mommies to clean up in your spare time!

NOTE: not built for all sinks ;o)

Filed Under: Cleaning, Homemaker, Organizing, Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home

2 Tips for fast & safe Outside Play {aka Fresh Air}

October 23, 2012 by Jules 2 Comments

Yesterday I talked about the importance of walking it off or getting some fresh air when you and yours are stressed. Today I wanna share a 2 big tips I've discovered to ease this option for sanity as well as keep everyone safe:

Prep ahead & keep necessities easily accessible
- shoes, socks, & set of clothing for each child {blush from the mom of the PJ-wearing kids here}
- outside-specific toys in a place kept outside that easy for kids to retrieve as well as clean up themselves
- stroller ready for ride
- bug spray & sun screen ready depending on the season
- sunglasses & hats
Set boundaries
- "don't go past the tree" or "stay on the driveway"
- teach children to walk on the right side of the road
- hook a rope to a stroller to train walkers near you on a walk
- place something in the way as a giant physical reminder of boundary as well as to keep other drivers a good distance from your little blessings

What fun tips do you have for gaining everyone's sanity once again or for outside play?

linked to Housewife How-Tos

Filed Under: Homemaker, Organizing, Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Rrrrr

September 19, 2012 by Jules 7 Comments

You know that moment? The one where your kids are getting on your nerves. The one where you look like a crazy among what appears to be organization feeling completely unraveled. Unraveled by those adorable little faces. The adorable faces with that wicked evil heart inside.

I feel like every time I share something, some grandiose idea I have for making life simpler with 3 tinies I loose that battle. I organize that stank'n toy room at least 3 different ways and it's all gone down the crapper. Last week my girls got grounded from nearly 90% of their playroom. No Joke! The rule is: if you don't clean up your toys before bed, whatever is left out gets picked up my mom and dad and put into "the closet". Most of the time the grounding last a full week.

Last week sucked! The grounding backfired. The 3rd night of this continual pattern, exasperated, I said, "Do you want to be grounded from these toys too?" to which my middle child just replied, "Sure. I be grounded." Rrrrrrrr Are you Kidding ME!!??!!

Morning Charts: fail

My husband does breakfast with the kids so he just herds them downstairs for feeding. I can't add "check to make sure they do their morning chart before they go down" is just not fair.

Daily Schedule/Chart: fail

I don't have the time an energy to set this chart up nightly and monitor if she's following it. And then there's the whole "I wanted to play teacher/mamma" which means she just pulled the entire chart down through the cards to the wind.

One 4 One Theory: making my older 2 take one bit of thing they didn't like and get rewarded with a bite they did worked GREAT! #3...not so much.

Jamin is a terribly picky eater. I had no idea kids were born knowing the difference between junk food and healthy food. My older 2 didn't seem to discriminate. J-man, he knows! We've begun forcing food into his mouth because he won't spit it out but he won't put it in his won mouth. WEIRD!

Centers: {I was gonna write this post...maybe not} they keep them generally in the right places and we can find things easily 98% of the time but as for only playing in 1 center at a time using the "preschool method" has been a flop

Every morning, the kids head straight for the kitchen center. Who wouldn't!?! What's not to love about an entire kitchen set just your size with fun pretend food sets and miniature dishes? But that's been the extent of it. They drag it out and wonder off. Rrrrrr

My kiddos drag out {more like DUMP} all kinds of stuff. If they are looking for a dress-up item, they dump the bucket, get the 1 item and leave the rest in a pile on the floor. As I kids, I never understood why I had to "put it away before you got something else out". I mean, where's the imagination in that? I totally understand not wanting to play in just 1 center when so many coordinate.

If you're a "mamma" in the kitchen center then of course you need a baby from the baby center and to be dressed appropriately from the dress-up center and you might even want to read your baby a book from the reading center and then take them for a ride in a car from the riding center and while you're out for a drive you might as well stop at the grocery store which means you need to drag out Every Single Piece of the Kitchen Center and sprawl it around the playroom so you can shop around in aisles and then your room is so trashed that you just have to take your computer from the electronic center into the living room with your babies who have multiplied and then the baby gets hungry so you have to grab just a few food items from the mess-of-a-kitchen-center and then you need more baby items from the baby center to properly take care of your baby and....

"If you give a mouse a cookie" much!?!?!

On top of that, yesterday they were ungrounded from all those toys. Matt and I put them back into place, had a discussion about why they were grounded, and showed them once again where things were expected to be. Ya know, the "if you wanna keep it, take care of your junk" talk. We were gone most of the day yesterday so it all hit the fan again this morning. The girls had destroyed the kitchen. Thank goodness there weren't too many other center Everywhere; Yet- we caught it in time. I found them dancing around in cute dress-up items while playing instruments from the music center. I told them it was great they were having so much fun together and that I liked it! Then I ask them to clean up the kitchen stuff real quick so they wouldn't have a huge mess to clean up later. MELT DOWN. Long story {slightly} short{er}, Mags ended up telling me to just give away certain toys so she wouldn't have to deal with them. Rrrrrr

One thing I can't handle is a rude ungrateful child. I had to go into the laundry room and cry over piles of clothing I was sorting, generously provided by God. We Have So Much. Do I give it all away? Will the the experience teach them anything? How much really needs to go with us when we move? I don't want giving away things to be a punishment. I want it to be a wiliness out of the overflow of compassion in their hearts.

Sorry, today's rant doesn't have a real conclusion. I could easily Jesus juke this bad boy with a good story about me, the mom, not being diligent enough to train them how to put away toys or me being lazy with my quiet time just like they are with their toys clean up or me being ungrateful for the things given me. But nope. Maybe it's my self-righteousness eeking out or impatient but I got none of that today.

If you have a suggestion, I'm always up for them but please gently tell me about it. I might snap today if I'm overwhelmed with clever mom's who are doing it right.

My prayer today: That Patients, Thankfulness, & Generosity bred in my heart will overflow in front of the eyes of my babes so they may follow in step.

Filed Under: Homemaker, Organizing, Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home

5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning Kids Toys in Centers: Sanitizing

August 24, 2012 by Jules 1 Comment

This week there are tons of ladies in this group talking about cleaning. I'm thinking for the good stuff, you may need to hit up their blog. I'm more of a tidy girl than a clean one ;O)

I will tell you real simply how I clean the different kinds of toys we have. Some of this comes from years of work in daycares, preschools, and elementary schools, others come from trial and error.

Plastic Toys

{containing no tiny holes where water can seep in and STAY}

Begin running warm-scalding hot water into your bathtub mixing in about 1 cup of bleach. Sometimes I don't have pure bleach so I use some sort of cleaning spray I have that contains bleach or claims to kill lots of germs. Then fill you tube with all your plastic toys. Cover all your toys with water...unless you put giant stuff in there. Then you might want to let the little stuff soak and then rinse the larger items by dumping your water/bleach mixture over them. Let your toys soak for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour. I've totally been known to forget toys or run out of time and leave them over night. After they've soaked, drain the water/bleach mixture and then rinse the toys with plain water. The hotter the water the better. Lay out on a towel or occasionally giggle them around int the tube making sure there is no standing water and let them air dry. I do this every few months or more often during cold/flu season or if we had tons of kids over for a party.

NOTE: after a doll baptism int the toilet, I did my own little "cleansing" service and dunked those babies in the sink with water and bleach. Word to the wise- Hot Glue Those Tiny Holes Shut. If you're like me and didn't have this thought until your trying to figure out how to help that hard shelled plastic baby pee- wrap her in a towel and pillow case and sacrifice her to the drier for a few minutes. Evaporates all that out of there!

Fabric Toys:

I know most dolls/stuffed animals ask that you not through them in the washer...but I do. Yep, if they don't have mechanical stuff in them they get chunked in the washer with the nightly load. Often I'll hang them on the "line" to dry or lay them on top of the warm drier to dry instead of sentencing them to the heat box.

Not comfortable with this idea. Hit up Pinterest! they have a ridiculous number of different ways to clean toys! Even how to detangle doll hair! For Real!!! Check out my board- I pinned it!

NOTE: Those baptized babies above...fabric ones, even with plastic head- washer! No drier. Ready to rock 1.5 days later. Good as new.

Shelves/Quick De-Germing:

If you have company coming and your afraid your littles snots will get passed to your friends littles {or vise-versa after they leave ;O), Grab a can of descent smelling Lysol. Hose those bad boys down. I am serious! This was a common practice when I worked at a preschool. During story time, my job would be to Kill Germs! Along with door knobs, toilet seats, and sink knobs, I would walk by shelves of toys and just spray. At my own house, I've often dumped tubs of toys on to a rug, sprayed the pile down and moved to the next tub. By the time I'd done all the toys and made my rounds through the house {during cold/flu season}, all the toys were dry and I simply put them back into the appropriate tub.

Ugg, I knew I would run out of time. Stop back in soon. I'll work up an entire post on "Labeling & Helping Your Child Move Around in Centers" including some FREE Printables!!!
This is final day of this series but if you missed any of the days you can find them here:

Monday: 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning TOYS into Centers: Selecting
Tuesday 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning TOYS into Centers: Dramatic Play
Wednesday was 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning TOYS into Centers: Manipulitives
Thursday: 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning TOYS into Centers: Reading

edited repost

This post series is linked to 21 other lovely ladies doing a variety of tops for the 5 day series on organizing and cleaning.

Just when you thought the giveaways where over...We’re also going to be having several giveaways that begin on the 1st day of the series and end on Saturday, the 25th of August. Winners will be announced on Sunday the 26th.

Click the footer below to find all the topics,links to each, as well as a list of all the giveaways and more Rafflecopters!

Filed Under: 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning, Cleaning, Homemaker, Organizing, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home

5 Days of Organizing Kids Toys into Centers: Manipulitives

August 23, 2012 by Jules Leave a Comment

Now that we've talked about selecting toys, the importance of & ideas for centers, as well as "dramatic play centers." Lets move on to those messy centers. You know, the ones we all dread...tiny pieces, lots of parts, and mess ones...but the ones every kids LOVES and we understand the importance of: Manipulatives!

Manipulative Center

We currently have lots of different manipulative centers in our home: Puzzles, baby toy manipulative, Playdough, etc. These toys and tools enhance children's fine motor skills and helps strengthen their hands, helps with eye-hand coördination, helps improve their writing skills. Even your pediatrician ask if they can stack 3 blocks at your well baby visit.

Block Center:

We currently have a set of large Lego blocks {multi-colored} and a small set of Jinja blocks {light wooden brown}. These are great for all ages. Just some of the possibilities for learning are: construction, transformation, measurement, spatial relationships, classification. It can even built language skill when they are asked to tell about their creation.

This is one of the most appealing toys for young children! They are versatile and appropriate for lots of age groups! Toddlers can stack cubes, kindergartners can build elaborate garages, and 9-year-olds can create a mall will tons of stores. Children of all ages enjoy playing with blocks because their open-ended allowing for countless possibilities for construction and transformation.

Blocks provide lots of learning opportunities: measurement, spatial relationships, and classification. It can even encourage language use as children talk about what they've created as well as ideas related to construction.

Board Game/Puzzle Center:

We currently have LOTS of board games. This shelf only contains the building, matching, and simple games they can do on their own. These are really better educational tools for older children with the amount of 'rules' involved with most games. But I've learned that simple games like Coodies, Hi Ho Cherrry-O, matching games, and even Candy Land can be comprehended VERY young! My 4-year-old completely understands taking turns, counting, etc. This is a center that will require more adult supervision at least in the early stages.

Puzzles are another center that with the proper training on the front end can provide for great quiet play time for little ones as theri brain sorts through all that is required to piece together puzzles. There are tons of different skill level puzzle options, so be careful not to jump in over your child's head which could just frustrate them but at the same time challenge them with harder more technical puzzles every once in a while to make sure they're not held back.

Almost anything can be a manipulative. There are TONS of infant toys out there that encourage manipulation as well as aid in teaching colors, shapes, and the like.

Low-grade supervision could lead to this but end in more lessons in sorting, identification, team work, and obedience ;0)

There are lots of other things that can be considered "Manipulitives" that I didn't mention; there are ton of outdoor activities and pretty much anything messy kids have to manipulate ;o) Some our favs: corn {rather than sand}, WATER, cooking, and good ole' dirt.