Posted: June 25, 2013 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales, Tips | Tags: car wash, children and accountability, chores, Doc, gas station, helping children learn responsibility, raising responsible children, teaching responsibility |
Respons-ability!
Many times when I’m with the kiddos, my primary concern is caring for them, doing things for them, keeping them distracted and happy. In my frantic frenzy to meet all of their needs, I can sometimes overstep and do too much for them. Most times it’s unintentional, but at times it is deliberate, as I know that I can clear the table/ pick up the living room/ or pick out the day’s outfit much more quickly and efficiently than the kiddos can. However, this doesn’t do the kiddos, their folks, or myself any favors in the long run. The old adage, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime,” holds true for kiddos as well. It is monumentally important for caregivers to pass on knowledge in the form of responsibility to young ones. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: January 31, 2013 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales | Tags: anny's love, Boss lady, chores, Doc, Doc. sweet moments. Captain Awesome, juggle, juggling, little things, nanny's love, nanny/charge relationship, princess, Rebel, Sassafras, Sassy, special relationship, sweet moments, uggling |
Many of my most memorable times nannying are less essayish and more episodic; tidbits of time that while seemingly insignificant, in the grand scheme of things, are monumental moments to me. Here are some of my favorites. I hope y’all enjoy!
While chillin’ with Captain Awesome one evening after many hours (I think he was my third house of the day) of nannying, I felt exhausted, probably looked even worse, and hadn’t seen the sunny side of a shower in more hours than I care to admit. But to my surprise he looked at his sister, Princess’s, Disney game, then back at me, then pointed to Cinderella on its cover and said, “Looks like you!” to which I responded with the most grateful “Thanks, dude. You are so awesome.” A smile fixed on my face for the rest of the week. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: May 22, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Tales, Tips | Tags: advice, chores, funny, nannying |
The summer before third grade, I attended a soccer camp run by professional soccer players—some active, some retired. One was a gargantuan South African man named Freeman. Freeman told us during our drills that practice did not make perfect, practice made permanent. The way you practice something is the way you will perform it. The way you write, the way you run, the way you throw, kick, catch—everything you do was once done one way, over and over, and that’s why you do what you do, how you do. That statement stayed with me through the years, as again and again I have reminded myself that how you do things is how you will always do things.
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Posted: May 22, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales, Tips | Tags: chores, funny, games, nannying |
Equally important to teaching children time management is presenting chores and homework as a means to an end—an end of fun! (No, Mr.Man, not the end of fun,an end of fun! Fun at the end!) Once Kiddos are done with their lists of chores, they are “free men” and can head outside, read, play with me—whatever they want. Having that motivation for completing tasks is invaluable.
Sometimes, especially midweek, I’ve found that I have to up the ante. For example, on the way home from school I told Big Cat and Mr. Man that they had to get all of their chores and homework done “super fast and super right” because I was dying to show them a little game I like to call Bear/Hunter/Ninja…because that’s what the game is called. (It is worth noting that when I told them they better “burn through their lists because Bear/Hunter/Ninja is awesome,” Big Cat requested some matches.) Immediately intrigued, both boys raced to finish their chores and met me outside.
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Posted: May 22, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Tales, Tips | Tags: childcare, chores, funny, nannying |
As a self-described Supernanny, part of my job is to get stuff done. And by stuff, I mean tasks that the kids don’t want to do and the parents don’t want to do with them (chores, homework, etc). I take the initiative on this because I want the children’s time with their folks to be quality and fun. And besides, I can make chores and homework fly by with my mad Mary Poppins skillz.
I surmount the hill of have-to-dos by breaking up the routine as much as possible and making the kids’ required tasks as clear-cut and easy to complete as possible. I draw up a master list for each, grouping the tasks by proximity to one another—empty backpack, wash hands, get out containers for tomorrow’s lunch can all be done downstairs; set out clothes, set alarm can all be done upstairs; then homework time. If you send kids all over the house and are constantly giving them directions they stop listening and/or get distracted. Believe me, I get it. As an easily-distracted child (welp, let’s be honest, person) I know how hard it is to complete chore after chore, assignment after assignment when all you see are toys you want to play with, books you’d rather be reading, your pals outside wanting to play, or (as would later become the biggest detriment to my being a productive college student) cocktails and swimming pools. I’m sensitive to the whole, “There’s not enough time!” feeling. I am actually well acquainted with that very excuse, as it was my constant companion all the way through college graduation, but never more so than in middle school.
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Posted: May 22, 2012 | Author: Mrs. Cheryl | Filed under: Miss Cheryl, Tales, Tips | Tags: Amelia bedelia, Big Cat, chores, cleanliness, Doc, funny, helping children clean up, helping children get organizing, magic, Mary Poppins, Mr.Man, nanny, nannying, Rebel, Tidying, trick |
We all recall the scene in Mary Poppins in which Julie Andrews helps the children tidy up the nursery. With a crisp snap of her fingers, the children’s clothes fly into the closet, their toys onto shelves. It’s AWESOME. But even though I will lay claim to such magical abilities as potty-training a child over the weekend (while his parents are out of town), getting veggies into the bellies of the most adamant verde-haters, and making nappers out of naysayers, I do not profess to have Mary’s mystical abilities. Instead I employ my own version of “Spoonful of Sugar” (better suited to those of us without lightning bolt scars on our foreheads) that transforms otherwise mundane tasks into flights of fancy.
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Y'all Behave! 