Thursday, November 12, 2009

Report Back to Me

Sometimes it is the little things...

If your kids are like mine and you have a number of things you would like them to do, it is most beneficial to tell them one at a time. And if your kids are like mine and they sense that you might have more than that first thing you tell them to do, they are really good at disappearing after that first thing. Granted that could just be my imagination, but it probably isn't. I could make lists and sometimes do especially for the day to day things, but nothing works better than the spoken word.

Thus the institution of "Report Back to Me." It works like this. When given an instruction or a school assignment you must always, and I mean always report back to the instructor(usually known as "Mom" who wishes she were still "Mommy" but that is another post). If I only have the one task for them to do then I let them know from the get-go that it is the only thing I need them to do. This saves us a lot of time doing what I call "the regathering of the peoples" and saves on the frustration of the peoples starting something new and fun and exciting only to be told they need to put their clothes away. "Report Back to Me" gets us through the school/chore part of our day at a better pace and gets things done a bit more effeciently making all the peoples including mom a lot happier!

4 comments:

jenn said...

lol - great tip! :)
love the pics of the kids.

Kelly said...

We play the same "game". The kitchen is sort of "Grand Central Station" here. I give out the destinations, they race down the tracks, follow their first instructions and then race back to me. It works well for three of mine as they love trains. I also have a whistle and will sometimes blow it for everyone to come running and we'll take a five min break to play/talk/dance/whatever.

Nan said...

Seems so basic and yet... I can't remember ever saying it. I am going to! Today was one of those days when I had many instructions to give and they were... well, let's just say, not altogether cooperative! Didn't help that hubby and I were both kind of on edge and overly tired.

Unknown said...

Oh... good plan.

I'm a gleaner, ya know... May I borrow this one?

Today is housecleaning day -- I'll start today. ;)