Kids

Teach Your Children the Importance of Routines With a Chore Chart

Danny S

Having a good routine is vital to staying on top of your life. You need to plan how to use your time efficiently, or you’ll never have time for everything. That can be a hard skill to master in adulthood, but it’s easy if you start young.

One of the best ways to teach your children to stick to a routine is by using behavior charts. A chore chart will give them a list of tasks they need to complete before they can engage in various activities. What’s on the chore chart is up to you.

If your child gets used to doing their homework and picking up their room before they watch TV, they’ll keep that habit later in life. They’ll instinctively take care of the work they need to do before letting themselves have fun. Being used to a routine like this is invaluable. It’s so hard to get into these habits as adults.

kids at playWhat chores you put on your chores chart are up to you. You should think about your individual kids and the skills you’d like them to be learning. Don’t look at it as a way to get necessary tasks done. Look at it as a way to train your kids for later in life. Take a look at the many different options of chore charts, rewards charts and sticker charts and behavior charts at Monkey & Chops. (please note behaviorcharts.org is now monkeyandchops.com)

You don’t even need to make everything on the chore chart a chore. For example, does your child forget to brush their teeth without prompting? You can put brushing their teeth on their chore chart. Once they get used to doing it as part of their routine, they won’t need to be reminded anymore. They’ll just do it naturally.

Help your kids become successful adults with chore charts. They’re easy to use, and surprisingly effective. Never underestimate the importance of a good routine.

The Best Kids Beds – How To Decide On One

Danny S

In the past, kids beds and their bedrooms were only for sleeping, and the rooms were kind of small with not much else besides a dresser, closet and a single bed. But nowadays, children’s bedrooms have grown in size and usually contain tons of toys, a TV set, and most likely a computer. And a kids bed is many times used as a large couch from which to watch TV and play games, then sleep at night. Now that the bedroom has turned into a children’s family room it’s more important for the child’s bed to have some style and uniqueness to impress their friends that to come to play.

bed for childrenOne of first things you need to consider for your kids bed, is the mattress. In the past a mattress was merely for sleeping and only needed to be strong enough to support the child while laying down sleeping. However, nowadays with three or four kids playing on the mattress like it’s a trampoline, a higher quality, stronger mattress is necessary. When purchasing your mattress, make sure that the salesperson at the store understands that it’s likely to be used as a trampoline, a pirate ship, a couch and a bed all in one day.

As far as the frame is concerned, it needs to be built strong to stand up to the wear and tear of supporting the trampoline, pirate ship and couch activities, just like the mattress. Plus, it would be nice if it was built in the shape of some kind of versatile child oriented toy that can double as a ship, car, or horse-drawn carriage while the imagination is running wild. Also, since kids these days have so much stuff, an extra set of drawers underneath the bed would be a great idea for storage space. Of course, these ideas are better suited for the younger child, an older child would be much better off having a larger bed in a traditional style that could be taken with them as they go off to college, or move into their own apartment as they grow up.

An important thing to consider in all these purchases is whether you and your child are making your decisions based on your needs of today, or your needs of the future. Children grow quite rapidly and their needs and wants tend to change rapidly as well. If you’re buying a bed that is only going to serve for a couple of years before you trade it in on a larger more permanent model, then you want to stick to a price range that matches the use and benefits that you will receive.

There are three great tips above to help you decide on the best kids bed to match your current and future needs with the desires and wants of your child in mind as well.