Does it Always Have to Be Fun?

I have recently noticed something that I do not like. My family has a very strange idea of what working hard is. I have 3 boy ages 10, 6, 3 and a daughter who is only 1 year old. I have been trying for the past 3 years to establish a morning routine that encourages self reliance (Making ones bed, getting dressed, brushing teeth and hair). Needless to say I am still working on this. Of course, family work is also an important thing in my eyes. We don't live on a farm, we are not aloud to have chickens in our area so working on a clean house and yard is all I have for my growing children.

My husband (Who I love very much and he is a super awesome Daddy) has felt that I have the kids spending to much time working. It was about 2 hours every morning. Kitchen clean up after breakfast and four or five things to maintain a clean house. After lots of talking about this I finally relented to reducing the work time to 1 hour. Needless to say, my house is never clean and rarely even picked up. Its just not enough time. The kids complain that work isn't fun. Who said that it was supposed to be a bunch of fun to do house work.

Now don't get me wrong. I believe that work can be enjoyed and done with a happy heart but I feel that work is avoided in my home because it is not "fun." Its not a trip to the park, disneyland, a movie, sword fighting, bike riding, beach time, or trip to the ice cream shop. Work in my house is done with a time restraint (1 hour) instead of with the satisfaction of doing a good job and having a sense of accomplishment.

Today I ran across a great article and wanted to share it with all of you, and my husband. Work shouldn't be a bad thing.  Not everything has to be fun and it is not our job as parents to teach our kids to be seekers of fun. We are to be teaching them how to work hard in all they do. If we can accomplish that they will accomplish many great things in life and be truly fulfilled and not just seekers of fun.

Please take the time to read this great article Why We Are Taking The Fun Out of Life

2015 is Here

Well another year has passed and so many things have happened. Unfortunately, with a new baby and moving when she was 3 months old and my husband working a new job and working on a Dissertation, lets just say the last 6 months have not been my educational best. Granted we have read some great books like Alice in Wonderland,Pinocchio, Pollyanna & The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I have read The Sign of the Beaver, Little House in the Big Woods, Some of Les Miserables, and listened to many hours of Don Quijote with the boys. There have been many other smaller books too.

OK, maybe we haven't done as bad as i have thought. We also went to the Chicago Field Museum twice, went to a Naval Graduation (I don't recommend anyone doing that on your own with 4 kids), Attended plays, musical performances and participated in Gymnastics, Tennis, Clay arts and Musical theater. Wow, I need to show this to my husband. We have been doing a lot.

So with this new year beginning and my house finally coming together more I hope to share much more with you. Both things we have done these past months and the new adventures we plan on doing. I plan on using a lot of resources we have at home, work on Life skills and jump more into Chemistry, Math and Geography.

We are also looking forward to The Russian Ballet, The Kratt Brothers Live, Eric Carl on stage and much more. I hope to also be able to devote a little more time to my blogging.