Homespun Harvest Farm

What’s a day like for me? Not much different than yours I suppose.

The Schedule: In brief

I get up about 6 am . The kids wake up on their own and are usually all up by 7. We get breakfast going and our am chores. Chores include feeding animals, making beds, breakfast clean up getting dressed and brushing teeth. Everyone does their part. We try to do a scripture study.  If the weather is nice we have some free time, if not we move right into school time. The younger ones have options, sit down with us or go play. Most often they enjoy school time with us. The 4 older children work on their lessons while I work on my own projects and help them along.

We break for lunch and clean up. Again if weather is nice we have outside free time. If not we use that time to catch up on lessons, maybe watch a movie. About 2pm we work back into lessons till about 4. Then again free time depending on weather and how well the children have done with school and chores. 

Dinner is at 6 and usually one of the children help. Clean up and ready for bed. Most everyone is in bed by 8 and they can read till they fall asleep.

Now this is a brief summary of a typical day here. And not all days run this way. We have the freedom to modify if we have something going on and the children and their behavior effect how much free time they get. We work first, play later.  An example of a variation in the schedule is today. My kids had a pizza party at church last night.. Its 7 am and I am the only one awake. This is why I have time to write this.

Chores and Responsibilities

In regards to chores, the rule is, if you can walk you can do chores. Jacob. The oldest does the most. He is also the one who oversees many operations J  Each child has  a partner. They are to work as a team- always. Jacob’s partner is Ezra. Jacob is my right hand man and helps me alot. And he enjoys it. This also gives Jacob more free time too as I do most of the partner stuff since Jacob helps with the rest. With great responsibility comes great rewards. Jacob is a very mature responsible kid. Quinten and Urijah are buddies. Urijah LOVES this.. Urijah is potty training and between Quinten and I helping he is really doing great. Quinten is very encouraging to him. Quinten’s job is to do his chores help Urijah with his. Their chores and responsibilities include putting away their own laundry, picking up their toys, making their beds. Quinten is also to help him get ready to go. He helps him get dressed and in the van. Abigail and Olivia are partners they are in charge of their own laundry and beds and dishes. Zachary and Isaac are also in charge of their own stuff and the table chairs and floor . Some think this is a terrible system and its not fair to the older ones who are “taking care of the siblings”. Unless you have actually worked this system there is no way to know that. In our home it is a wonderful system and has built a great relationship between the kids.. As the family changes as do partners.. so about once a year or every two years the partners change ( up till about 2 mos ago Jacob and Urijah were partners and Quinten was partners with Zachary) In a large family you have to facilitate bonding between siblings .This system does that. We have used it since Jacob was old enough to be an older buddy, so maybe 6-7 years. This also helps when we are out and about. They say it’s safer to travel in pairs. If we are at a public place I stand outside the door(s) and the buddies can use the restrooms. This also helps to prevent lost sheep. If you keep track of your partner we don’t have the “wher e is Zachary” moments.  Isaac always knows where Zachary is etc.  He has one person to keep track of. This makes keeping track of 8 much easier. I still count every 10 min but I worry a lot less.

Punishment and Rewards

We try to work on the reward part more, but some days they just wear ya down. We have some set rules. Here are a few off the top of my head.

1.       No tantrums. Do not throw a fit because you did or did not get something you did or didn’t want.

2.       No physical altercations out of anger. 

3.       No disrespecting of adults

4.       No tattling. We encourage them to make sure no one is in danger but I really don’t need to know every little thing the others have done wrong. Try to solve your own issues before you take it to me.

5.       

Punishments include timeouts, pushups or a swat. This varies by the violation of the rules. For example if the older 4 are caught fighting they will each get 100 push-ups.  Disrespecting of adults gets you swats ( or spanking as some may call.. But before you get all up in arms it’s perfectly legal to spank and whomever you want to report me to has already been out here to tell me that. So don’t waste anyone’s time. My kids are far from abused. ) The younger ones spend more time in time out although they do get some swats or push-ups. 

We recently started a great and fun reward system. I got the idea from my Relief Society President. It’s a Bingo sheet.  The squares have different goals and when you get a bingo you get a prize. A few things I list on the squares

1.       First partners ready for church

2.       Write a letter to a family member or missionary

3.       Help someone with their chore

4.       Share with a friend or sibling

5.       Do a chore without being told

This has been fun for the kids. I begin a new sheet at the first of each month and they can get up to 10 bingos per sheet. (Completing the sheet gets you 10)

So there is a typical day in the life of a large family.. I am sure there is more but I cant recall right now :)