Getting organized!!

So I've realized that my worst moments are when we are getting ready for school and before bed because I'm nagging and telling people what to do and guess what...they're not listening!!!  SO I decided to make a whole new reward system in our house to save my sanity and save my children from the wrath of Erin!

So the first thing I made was clipboards with lists of things that need to be done in the morning and before bed.  I got the clipboards from the dollar store.  Believe or not I had a hard time finding these babies! I eventually found them at the dollar store by the sobey's on mainstreet called the Canadian Dollar store. 

The timers came from zellers or canadian tire, but I had to be really careful about the back where the battery goes.  I had to go back several times because they were broken.  Funny story, Roddy took back the last batch for me and was fed up.  He said they were pretty busy so he told them he wanted to exchange it.  He went over to where the timers were and took all of them off the rack and brought them back to customer service.  He didn't want to leave with one that was broken so he commenced to open them all.  As he went through each one they were all broken! After he'd gotten to about the 5th one the manager came by and was like "ummm WHAT are you doing???"  He explained that all of them were broken and all the manager had to say was, "well we can't sell those now!" So Roddy decided it was time to head out of there empty handed.  So the last one I got at zellers.

I covered the clipboards with white glue with a foam brush and then added the scrapbook paper on top.  The letters I cut out using my cricut. 

The dry erase markers are amazing and came from Dollarama, I was so excited that they had erasers on the end AND a magnet on the otherside!!

I also added time limits for each task.  Hannah has trouble staying on task sometimes (well a lot, hahah) and so a timer really helps her to stay on track, she hates not finishing before the timer beeps!

So when they wake up in the morning or it's time for bed, they get out they're clipboards and away they go! Now of course it's not fool proof and I still have to prompt them to do the next thing on their lists sometimes, but boy is it better!!

I made the lists in my digital scrapbooking program from Stampin Up called My Digital Studio.  I love it!  I did add some little clip arts and stamps after I printed them out on my printer.  I glued some cardstock on and laminated them!

So onto the reward system.  When they complete their list they get to put a magnet on the reward board.  I got this metal board from Ikea quite a while ago. 

They each have 3 rows.  Top is for the AM list, middle is for the PM list and the bottom row is for their chore of the day.  Hannah's is always to set the table, Abby is empty the dishwasher unless there aren't any and then I usually make something up or get her to help clean up after supper.

I let them pick a stamp for their magnets, then I stamped and punch them out with a circle punch, laminated them and then cut them out.  I got the circle magnets from dollarama for the backs and I used a glue gun to attach them, I hate it when things come apart!

Hannah keeps her's in neat little rows and Abby usually just bunches them together! hahaha

So at the end of the week (which we haven't done before!) we will add up how many magnets each girl got and they get 5 cents for each one.  Not a big reward but boy are they excited!!  This is also going to be a great way to teach them about saving etc!

Whew.  I'm so glad this whole project came together so well.  It was an idea floating around in my head and it works!! hahhaa.  I had been praying for guidance with my girls for quite awhile and I think these ideas were an answer to my prayers on how we can be a little bit more calm and peaceful around here!