Parenting Archives - Page 35 of 43

“Oh, you can make milkshakes out of icecream?” {Thoughtful Thursday Link-Up}

March 15, 2012 by Jules 4 Comments

That's right. I'm slack'n and didn't get the Thoughtful Thursday link up ready to go before 9pm. But here it is!

After dinner one night my girls were so excited to tell their daddy they were getting "SHACKS" for dessert! My husband came to me wondering where I was going to pick up shacks for them and when I told him I was making them he said, "Oh, you can make milkshakes out of icecream?"

Uummm, yeah! Duh. hehehe

Desired amount of icecream, any added flavoring you want, blend, pour, slurp!
I also like to put plain yogurt and frozen fruit in a blender and calling it a "shake"! My girls LOVE it and think it's the best snack/dessert Ever ;o)

I'm sure you have some way more Thoughtful things to share. Link'm Up below! {open 'til next Wednesday}

Filed Under: Baking and Cooking, Being a Help-Meet, Hand-Dandies, Homemaker, Parenting, The Ones about Link-Ups, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home, Thoughtful Thursdays Tagged With: homemade shake, icecream, link up, milkshake

TOM’s 1 for 1 Policy

March 2, 2012 by Jules 4 Comments

We've adopted a principle similar to TOM's 1 for 1 policy.

We have often encouraged out children to eat a variety of food during meal times. One of the ways we get them to do this is the 1 for 1 policy {game}. Today I spent 30+ minutes trying to get my almost-2-year-old to eat a cheese burger. I know, right! She doesn't want to eat a cheese burger? Anyways. I ended up tearing the burger into bit-sized pieces and sat with a bag of grapes exchanging 1 grape for every 1 bit of burger. It may sound silly but it's worked for our 2 oldest kids.

What parenting tricks have you learned to help your kids eat?

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: 1 for 1, earnings, economy, preschooler, punishments, rewards, saving, spending, tithing, TOMS

31 to be Exact

February 21, 2012 by Jules Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Being a Help-Meet, Homemaker, Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home Tagged With: 31 status, godly women, new status, Proverbs 31, women

Our “Fake Economy”

February 20, 2012 by Jules 2 Comments

We created our own "fake economy", as my hubs likes to call it.

My 3.5 year old goes through phases of responding then not responding to different methods of discipline (ie. spankings, time outs, grounding, etc) and/or rewards (stickers, extra fun snack, candy, etc).

The "fake economy" works like this:

Every time Maggie does her "morning routine" chart all by herself (no begged assistance from mom and dad who are juggling the younger babes) she 'earns' a bread tie. Bread tie? Yep, straight got this from a psych. teacher in college. I've been collecting the for years.
She can also "earn" a bread tie by

Doing her chart without being asked
Using the potty with DRY/CLEAN panties
Listening 1st time (at parents discretion something super important)
Staying in her bed at nap and night-time

She places them in her cupcake shaped piggy bank right now. This afternoon she 'earned' a special craft. We'll be making 3 new piggy banks!

One for GOD
One for SAVING
One for SPENDING

This will be a great way to begin teaching her about finances! My hubs and I have created a list of things she can "buy" with her bread ties. This list will be bought with those ties in the Spending or Saving bank. On Sundays we will count out her ties and each one will be worth a penny. She'll then give the pennies we give her (in exchange for her ties) to our church offering. It's not quite the 10% {tithe} but it will begin to teach her that God has ask us to give back a portion of what He given us. I pray it will also teach her to be generous and that the 10% is a minimal suggestion of what we can give back.

Do you have any good ideas for teaching your child about handling finances? How about a "fake economy" of your own? PLEASE SHARE in the comments below!

I'm also linked up over at:

Filed Under: Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home Tagged With: budgeting, preschool finances, reward system, teaching preschoolers to budget God's way

Preschool Finances

February 16, 2012 by Jules 1 Comment

How to you teach your child about budgeting?

Yep, those my friend are more washed out formula cans. Are you ready from some up-cycling? We have begun a new habit in our home. Partly to teach our oldest child (3.5) about prioritizing and budgeting but also just as a different system of reward. I'll tell you more about our "fake economy" later but for now I just want to tell you the 3 basic categories we are teaching her to "budget" her money into. God. Save. Spend. That simple. We give back to God just a simple part of what He's so graciously allowed us to manage. Then we save for bigger things. And we get to spend more frequently on smaller things. Here is how we made her 3 banks:

Like I said, I'm working on a future post about our "reward system" but I will just say it involves bread-ties and then divides them {currently}divides them {she calls it 'organizing' them} Evenly into the 3 categories/banks.