PEACE!

Okay.. once again this is a review of something that you might think may not be related to M is for Mom - but bear with me… IT IS!

Trigger Memory System, the author of Times Tales (which I will be reviewing soon, one thing at a time…) has also put together probably my absolutely favourite parenting tool EVER -  Clean n’ Flip Charts!!  Now, these charts are a meager $7,95 (or if you want not the whole set of Clean n’ Flip charts with a wipe off marker and everything it’s only $29.99) but believe me… they are worth their weight it GOLD!  Anyone who knows FlyLady (and I do, and had to unsub because I just couldn’t keep up with her incredibly organized email reminders) knows that the key to an organized house is A SYSTEM.  THIS is the System of Systems to bring peace to our homes…

Okay.  Background.  Right now our house has three bedrooms.  I have four children… two boys (almost-15 and 6) and two girls (13 and 3), and since Tony and I would like to have a bedroom too (we pay the mortgage after all, I think we’re entitled!) that leaves our children to share rooms.  And even though the Littles might not mind sharing a room, I think the Bigs might. *wink*

Well, I’m big on mentoring and all that jazz, and my older daughter is definately “getting” the whole “encourage your little helper” thing… my older son is not (sheesh, men, even young ones!).  So… we have battles, almost daily, over “the mess G made of my room!” (uh, OUR room?).  So… we’re planning on splitting the rooms into four rooms… but that’s not going to happen this year (2008)… so we need to find a system to make this bedroom-sharing thing work and brotherly love to not fall by the wayside. 

And along comes Clean n’ Flip!

Now, I didn’t want to “dictate” so I simply handed the chart to my oldest son and whispered to him, “Here, this might help.. why not get him into this like a treasure map/adventure thing…” (it’s not really - but it did lead them to a special treasure… keep reading!).  So, well-armed, my soon-to-be-15 year old called his little brother and said, “LOOK WHAT I HAVE! (excited tone) Let’s go follow the directions and see what happens!”.  G came running… “What?! What?!” and off they went on their adventure…

I wish I had a “before” picture to show you… I was too ashamed to take one… but here is Greyson doing “Step 4″ (he told me proudly as I dashed for the camera…). 

And here is Ev and G putting away the books in the pile…

Both boys were working together - AS A TEAM!  It was incredible to see… no fights, no “MOM.. G is not cleaning!!!” or “MOMMY!  Ev is yelling at me!!!!!”… instead, for that short time… there was brotherly love, team work, and LAUGHTER.. yes!!! Laughing… they thought it was FUN! 

When they were done Ev and G did find a wonderful treasure…

A Clean Room!

Have a blessed (and hopefully peaceful) day!

As a review blogger,  I am provided a free copy of the book, curriculum or product to test and use in order to write an honest review. I receive no other compensation and the opinions I share are my own and not influenced by the company in question.

This entry was posted on 17. November 2008 at 17:04 and is filed under M is for Mom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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