The Great Chore Treaty

This week the kids and I are learning about King Henry V, the battle of Agincourt, and the Treaty of Troyes. For a project we decided to write our own simple treaty over something that at times causes headaches in our house- chores.

This treaty was between all four kids and myself. The agreement was that we would all do our chores quickly and with a good attitude.

The kids agreed that they would no longer whine, fight, or run away and hide during chore time. That they would ask what they needed to do next as they completed tasks and do tasks quickly. If they did not do this they agreed they would have to copy verses for displays of bad attitude, have an extra chore for running away, and after three infractions would have to make their own dinner.

I agreed that I would make sure to have the chore list out and ready for the day, would play good music during chore time with holiday themes as much as possible, would help them with chores, and have a good attitude myself. If I was unprepared or unwilling to help the kids would not have to do chores and if I had a bad attitude they would get to put their input into what we had for dinner that night.


They all signed the treaty and had a fun time coming up with terms and consequences we all could live with. I think it gave a good example of how these things worked on a smaller scale and helped them understand. I do plan on holding them to it. Usually they do chores well, but we are not perfect and there are always those days which seem to happen more often when the days are shorter for some reason :)

Santa's Workshop

For Christmas this year we decided to help the children make things for each other instead of just buying things that they help pick out of for the others. We were hoping that it would make it more meaningful for them. We also decided to set the example and make them some gifts as well.

This has transformed our house into Santa's workshop with projects everywhere. Most of them are simple things so we can get them done and go on with our Christmas without too much fuss since I don't have tons of time. Here is a list of our projects, and hopefully I can post some pictures of them as they finish:

Bracelets
Hair clips
fleece blankets (no sewing required!!!)
pillow cases
aprons
wands (using wood skewers, wooden beads, and string)
samurai masks
Pajama pants (I make these for the kids anyway and can roll them out in no time at this point)
board games
book marks

It seems like ideas are endless and many of them are useful as well as creative. I even saw tutorials for homemade soap, candles, and recycled crayons made into fun shapes that didn't make the list this year. However, we didn't want to have a Christmas that was all homemade because of time and there are just things that aren't practical to make at home (like shoes and legos).

I hope everyone's holiday preparations are going well too :)