I though you'd never ask!

1.  About the noise level- I have issues with this.  Is there a certain block of time, like 2-4 or whatever that you require your kids to be quiet?  I feel kind of bad that just when my older kids finish school it's "quiet" time.  They play upstairs or outside until little ones wake up.

1.b.  Do you have to remind them often to not interrupt or talk over one another, especially at mealtime or in the car?  It seems my kids keep getting progressively noisier!

2.  During read aloud do you stop every so often and ask your kids questions to make sure they're tracking with you?  My 6 yr old NEVER knows what's going on.  I did buy a reading comprehension game and she's improving at that, but it only has a few sentences per card.

3.  Do you individually tuck each kid in or do you have hugs and kisses at family worship and then send eveyone off to bed?

4.  Do you blanket train your babies?  Do you require them to be silent on the blanket?  If so, HOW?  My 15 month old will sit still, but she's constantly talking.  Church is out for her now.  I'd like to change that.

5.  Do you ever lose your cool with your kids and have to apologize to them?  Please say yes.  I get so discouraged sometimes.  I want to be laid back soooooo bad and I'm much more so than I used to be, I'm just not where I want to be.

Sorry you asked?  You're so great to share your secrets with us!  I know it has to do with lots of prayer!

1. Yes, during the little kids nap time the big kids have quiet time.  (Our normal schedule is for everyone to have an hour of playtime after lunch, so it's not quiet time right after school.)  The standard is that quiet time means quiet reading.  (This is when they finish Bible reading or read their Sonlight assignments and do for fun reading.)  However, if everyone is being responsible then they may work on knitting, wood carving or any other quiet activity and when the weather is nice they may stay outside and play.

1b. Yes, constantly.

2. Only occasionally. We typically discuss our school work at the dinner table and each of the children has an opportunity to "narrate" to Daddy about what they learned from our read alouds during that time.  Did you read my review of Rocket Rap from Bonnie Terry?  It's a listening/reading comprehension game that worked wonders for one of our children who has ALWAYS struggled in this area.

3. We pray with everyone at family worship and then they get in bed and Mark and go and hug, kiss and cover each child individually.  Sometimes when I'm feeling poorly (read morning sickness) they kiss me before they go, but Mark always heads to their bedrooms to tuck and kiss.

4. I talk about how we use blankets here.  We train our children to be quiet during the worship services from the time they are little. (6 months or so)  So they are already accustomed to being quiet.

5. Yes, frequently.  It's one of the huge regrets in my life.   I only pray that they will know how much I love them, despite how often I fail.

Not sorry I asked! :)

Ok, some of these questions I have asked before, but here it goes.....

1.  For a simple outing, grocery store or doctor's appointment, how long do you need to plan in advance, how long does it take to get out the door?  Do the older kids help get younger kids shoes on, things like that?

2.  For a vacation, how long do you have to start packing in advance, do you have a master list to help remind you of things you need, do you stop and wash clothes while away?

3.  When you are not pregnant and feeling poorly, do you menu plan, do you have an idea of what you are serving each day, from the freezer, etc.?

Thanks for sharing!

Oh, thanks for being open to questions!

1. HOW do you train your babies to be quiet in church? :)

2. What are your expectations of your other children in church (especially little guys?)

3. What do you do when traveling long distances as a family as far as meals and bathroom stops? 

I'm sure I'll think of more!  Thanks again!

 

1) How large is your house? Crazy question I know but I struggle with this because we live in a ranch house with an unfinished basement & we want to put bedrooms down there but feel bad because it is what it is...a basement!

2) How do you do Christmas gifts? Limited number or budget per child?

That's all for now! I'm sure I will think of more! :)

Chantelle asked,

1. For a simple outing, grocery store or doctor's appointment, how long do you need to plan in advance, how long does it take to get out the door?  Do the older kids help get younger kids shoes on, things like that?

I usually have the children start getting ready a half hour before we need to leave.  It usually doesn't take that long, but you never know when someone will be missing a shoe or a coat.  Once everyone is ready to walk out the door, we continue with our regular activity until it's time to leave.

Yes, the older children help.  Each child has a buddy and the big one helps the little one put on shoes, coats, make sure their clothes match, etc.  I help whomever needs it and always double check everyone before we leave.  It actually takes us less time to get ready now than it did when we had 5 kids 4 and younger.

2. For a vacation, how long do you have to start packing in advance, do you have a master list to help remind you of things you need, do you stop and wash clothes while away?

For camping, I begin packing a week in advance.  If we will be staying in a house (we rarely do hotels), I usually give myself two days (if we will be grocery shopping there) after I get all the laundry finished.  If we will be cooking or taking most of the food with us then I give myself more time.

Yes, I have a master list.  I would never survive without it.

We've never stopped at a laundry mat on vacation.  When we are staying at a house (believe it or not this is MUCH less expensive than hotels for our family) I do laundry nearly every day and pack very light for clothes.  When we are camping we don't wash clothes unless it's an emergency.  (Our first camping trip with the children we stayed where there was just a pit toilet.  Our fully potty trained 2 1/2 year old called it the yucky potty and after her first visit she refused to use it if she could help it.  We washed a lot of her clothes in the creek and dried them on the line.)

3. When you are not pregnant and feeling poorly, do you menu plan, do you have an idea of what you are serving each day, from the freezer, etc.?

If I don't have meals in the freezer I almost always have a menu plan.  For times I don't I have what I call "pantry meals", meals that I can pull together quickly from ingredients that I keep in my pantry.

When we have our freezer full of meals I don't plan each day what's for dinner.  We keep our freezer stocked with frozen veggies and just pull a freezer meal out each morning and then when it's time to prepare supper we pull out 2 types of vegetables to serve with it.  We also try to serve rice, homemade bread/cornbread or potatoes with each meal.

Beth asked -

1. HOW do you train your babies to be quiet in church?

You do realize that's a super hard question, each time we have a little baby I think, "Now how do I do this?" 

First let me say that each parent is different and each baby is different, so pay attention to your child and to what feels right to you, pray for wisdom and for God to work in your child's heart.

Some of our babies have fallen into this and we've almost never needed to give them instruction and others have needed more help.

Also, while I do believe that it is beneficial for both the parent and the child for young children to remain in the worship service and to be quiet.  I've never seen a verse that says, "Thy child shalt be quiet in church by 9 months of age" or any other age for that matter. Pray for wisdom and parent your child as God gives you the wisdom to do so.

We begin when they are tiny.  We always keep them in church with us and whenever they are small and begin to fuss or make noise we quiet them, just like any parent would do.  We comfort, hold, bounce them  etc. and whisper, "shhh" into their ear.  If they get too noisy we leave and continue to try to quiet them somewhere that we won't be a disruption to others.

When they begin to make purposeful babbling noises, we whisper, "shh, no noise" in their ear and put our fingers gently on their lips so that they begin to understand what we are saying. 

When we begin training them "no" at home. (Baby crawls toward a light socket.  I say, "Baby that's a no."  Baby pays no heed and reaches for the light socket.  I move babies hand away and say sternly, "No. no."  As baby begins to understand I begin to flick babies hand as he/she reaches to touch the light socket. Etc.)  The quiet in church training follows the same pattern.  The key to this is that baby is beginning to understand the term, "No". 

So when I say, "shh, no noise" baby hears "no" and now is beginning to understand what I mean. As I say, "shh, no noise" I put my fingers on babies mouth.  (This is just a touch to let them know what I'm talking about.)  The baby almost ALWAYS stops the noise at least for the moment.  So I whisper, "Good boy/girl" Mommy is proud of you for obeying."  Then they almost always begin to babble again.  I put my fingers on babies mouth and say sternly, "Mommy said, no noise."  They almost always stop and think about it, at this point they pretty much know and are going to either comply or test.  They usually test and at that point we give them the same correction that we would at home, usually a flick or light swat on the thigh.  They usually just stop at this point. 

Usually they will start again later and we repeat the process.  If baby begins to fuss with the flick or swat, we repeat the process of reminding them to be quiet.  Usually that is all it takes, occasionally they need to be taken out so that they can calm down.  If we need to take them out, we tell them that they are supposed to be quiet in church.  We do NOT take them to someplace fun like the nursery.  We do not stay out of the worship any longer than necessary. 

Some things to note:

• As soon as they know what "no" means, you should either stop using the term or deal with disobedience each and every time. 
  
• It sounds pretty straight forward as I've put it down here, but even though I'd done it 8 times, when I started training Nicholas I had a hard time knowing what to do.  So remember to pray and pay attention to your child. 
  
• If your child is being willfully disobedient (even if he's making really cute noises) then deal with the disobedience.  If your child really doesn't understand then be patient and continue to teach them what you expect.
• Since our children normally take a morning nap at the time that our worship service takes place we allow them to sleep during that normal nap time.  We just train them to sleep in our arms.
• I will also nurse a small baby during the worship service. 
  

2. What are your expectations of your other children in church (especially little guys?)

If they are still taking a morning nap, they are allowed to sleep in the service.  Once they drop the morning nap we expect them to stay awake. 

They are expected to look at the pastor and hold still during the sermon and to take part in the rest of the service to the best of their ability.  We encourage our children to sing when we sing, stand and recite