Groundation Army

Here we are at the end of two weeks into summer vacation. I have severely failed to provide my lovely darlin's with the proper structure to ensure a no fighting environment over the summer. You see, I promised them worksheets and math lessons and writing assignments, but I let my own personal desires to clean the house and weed the flower beds stand in the way. Therefore, my children formed an alliance with each other to nitpick at, argue with, and sometimes slap each other to gain my attention. Yesterday, they finally succeeded in their mission! They got my full and undivided attention, free from swapping laundry, scrubbing toilet bowls, and pulling weeds!

Yes, my little angels, I hear your cry for structure...I need all front and center for a "Come to Jesus" meeting. Let me start by apologizing for not making you read and write and do math for the past week. I understand it has been a challenge for you to occupy yourselves with the many board games, shelves of books, hundreds of toys, bikes and scooters, and all the outdoor fun toys available to you, so I'm stepping in to help you utilize the items available to you for your enjoyment. Starting right now, you are being introduced to no TV, video games, or electronic devices of any sort until NEXT Friday at which time you may have the privilege to use those items at my discretion...that is called being grounded. Does everyone understand that you are not to watch TV or play with any electronics until said time? Yes? Great! Now, if someone decides to sneak these item between now and NEXT Friday, you will have an extra day of grounding added to your time. In addition, any further arguing, poking, annoying, etc will also result in an extra day being added to your grounding. Does everyone understand? Yes? OK.

Since you are begging for structure, starting Monday, all children will be out of bed, dressed, and fed by 9:30am. At which time we will ALL, mommy included, engage in some sort of outdoor physical activity for 30 minutes, be it riding bikes, taking a walk, hula hoop, etc. We will be outside weather permitting. Am I clear so far? OK, good! After our planned activity we will be engaging in "school work" until lunch time. Each of you will do a book report a week and present it on Friday mornings. You will also each be doing a journal entry daily. I will give you a writing prompt and you will respond with a minimum of 5 paragraphs. Each of you will also have a math lesson to complete daily. Does that sound like fun? After lunch, each of us will spend 30 minutes cleaning up. If we ALL work together we should be done in less time and can have the afternoon to play games, swim, go to the library, sew, crochet, etc. Are we all on board with this plan? Surprisingly enough, all three said yes.

In addition to a structured day, my little angels, I will provide you with a "tattle jar". It will be located in the kitchen, complete with paper squares and pen. Anytime and I mean anytime someone feels the need to tattle, all you have to do is write who did what on the paper, sign it, fold it up, and place it in the jar. I will read all "tattles" on Friday mornings. Now, for clarification... if someone is hurt or doing something dangerous or hurting someone else, I need to know right away. For things like someone flinging a booger at you or sticking out their tongue at you or leaving dirty clothes on the floor, write them down and place them in the "tattle jar". Feel free to use it as many times a day as you like, no one is counting and no one else will read them except for me on Friday mornings. Any questions on how the "tattle jar" works?

If there are no further questions on procedure starting Monday, you are all dismissed until dinner...

HOLY HECTOR! WHAT HAVE I DONE TO MYSELF?