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I love doing my girls hair and am very thankful that they both happily sit there while I braid their hair.  Braiding the hair just isn’t about the cute hairstyle, I like to have it off their faces and tied back to stop the nits from jumping in. 

We are back into school mode so I tried this adorable hair style, very cute and quirky!

You can see more cute girls hairstyles here

© 2010 The Organised Housewife | All rights reserved - This post Quirky braid hairstyle for girls + step by step instructions is provided for the convenience of The Organised Housewife readers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited.

My little Miss 8 is quite the perfectionist.  All my 3 kids cleaning styles are different, but Miss 8 likes to keep everything in its place, doesn’t like to be late and likes to remember everything.  Especially when it comes to getting ready for school, every morning last year she would say “OK Mum, I have packed my lunchbox, my drink bottle, I have my hat.  Have I forgotten anything?”.  If I was busy doing something I would just think off the top of my head that she had all she needed and said yes, but quite possibly she should have packed her home reader.

Whilst I don’t mind her asking I thought I would make her a chart to visually help her remember everything that is needed.

I’ve placed it on the wall in the school bag nook.

I have made these charts available in the shop, currently on sale throughout February.  Green, Blue, Pink and Purple colour options are available.  Charts can be personalised.

© 2010 The Organised Housewife | All rights reserved - This post Have I packed in my school bag charts is provided for the convenience of The Organised Housewife readers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited.

Last year I created some times table charts to help them learn their times tables, which they found to be a great help.  I mentioned in a previous post that I put the adjectives and verbs charts on the back of the toilet door for the kids to look at while they are sitting there… it has worked a treat.  I have walked up to the kids area a few times and heard the child in the toilet testing the other two while they are brushing their teeth “is walking an adjective, pronoun or verb”?  Whatever works I say.

Each week the twins have to concentrate on a particular set of times tables so I’ll place the related chart on the back of the door for them to study through the week, we usually practise while I’m preparing dinner too.

I also made the division chart as a visual aide to help explain divides to Miss 10 as she struggles with her maths.  Having the chart has helped her to understand how similar they are to the times tables.

I have laminated each page, so I can then take the laminated sheet with me while driving in the car to after school sports and test the kids, yes I’m not great at maths either, I need charts too!!

Find more details:  Time Table Charts  |  Division Charts

© 2010 The Organised Housewife | All rights reserved - This post Learning Posters: Times Table and Division Charts is provided for the convenience of The Organised Housewife readers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited.

 Lunch box Planner on sale until Sunday 10th February

The twins (soon to be 10) have become very independent over the past few months and they are now making their own lunches.  After I have planned their lunch box food for the week I am going to place the printable on the back of the cupboard door  where their lunch boxes are kept so they can read what they need to pack for lunch.  After I have created a few weeks of lunch box plans, I will rotate them each week to save on planning time.

I keep all ‘lunch box’ food in an easy pull out fridge drawer, where the kids will find cut up fruit and vegetables, deli meats for sandwiches, poppers (only on very hot days), diced cheese, cucumber and more.

Whole pieces of fruit are kept in the fruit crisper

So far this week this new setup has been working really well and making lunch box prep time so much faster and easier.  I also think this may save on our grocery bill.

On my lunch box plan above I have added Fruit Salad on Friday, but I will change this to a Monday.  I usually do my grocery shopping on a Monday after school drop off, so when preparing their lunches on Monday morning I can create a fruit salad cup filled with all left over fruit from the prior week.

Lunchbox foods in fridge – Fridge Binz – Deep Split – Howards Storage World

Fruit crisper – Decor  Square containers – Most Department and Grocery Stores

Storing precut fruit and vegetables – Clear Mates and FridgeSmarts - Tupperware

© 2010 The Organised Housewife | All rights reserved - This post Planning food for lunch boxes is just as important as planning dinners is provided for the convenience of The Organised Housewife readers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited.

I have spent the past fortnight meal planning from my pantry and freezer, eating items that need to be eaten and making room to restock with back to school food. I’m going to spend some time over the long weekend to bake up some muffins, piklets and cookies to place in the freezer.  Next week I will share with you some new recipes I’ve tried but before I do that here is a great list of freezable lunchbox baking you can make a start on this weekend too if you wanted.

Back to School lunch ideas

50+ different recipes of freezable lunch box treats, below is choc chip cornflake cookies, click link for recipe

Lunch box essentials for the pantry

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

Blueberry Muffins

Bacon and Vegetable Slice

Super Easy Vegemite and Cheese Scrolls

Lemonade Scones

3 Ingredient mini muffins

 and my absolute favourite are the 100+ Cookies from 1 mix

What are you favourite freezable lunch box snacks?

Please leave recipes below and I might give them a try!

© 2010 The Organised Housewife | All rights reserved - This post {Back to School} Freezable lunch box baking is provided for the convenience of The Organised Housewife readers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited.

A few years ago I was watching an episode on Dr Phil about parenting styels, a ‘helicopter parent’ vs a ‘free range parent’.  A helicopter parent hovers over their children, follows them around and won’t let them out of their sight.  A free range parent gives the kids freedom and independence for them to venture out of sight.  (I hope I defined these correctly, but this is how I interoperated them).  I certainly felt I fell into the ‘helicopter’ style of parenting, I have been known to follow the kids to school (they scootered) in the car just to know they got their safe.  However over the past few years I have let go a little and given my kids the freedom to go outdoors by themselves.  Be it they are older now, it’s easier.  Anyways, this post isn’t about parenting styles it’s about giving the kids the freedom to ride to school.

We live in a really lovely neighbourhood, most of the kids in our street go to the same school and are around the same age. They all enjoy playing together on weekends and holidays.  So when the kids asked if they could ride to school by themselves we thought it was a great idea, there’s about 8 of them that ride together.  However, as some kids have before and after school commitments it’s hard to co-ordinate all the kids.  So I have created some bike riding/walking schedules for both boys and girls to write down when their friends can ride/walk to school.

Print the schedule and write when friends can ride in pencil, using pencil will allow you to make changes as it always happens.

click to view

© 2010 The Organised Housewife | All rights reserved - This post {Back to School} New Printable – Bike riding and walking schedules is provided for the convenience of The Organised Housewife readers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited.

I have shared previously about how we get the chaos out of our morning routine and how having a evening routine keeps me sane.  I’d really like to share details with you again about this as we have had them in place since the twins started kindy, around 3 years old.  The twins are nearly 10, I still have the charts up, they don’t need to refer to them everyday but there are day’s they need a gentle reminder.  Over the years they have truly been a sanity saver.

I have 3 charts, a morning, afternoon and evening routine chart.  The morning and evening charts are on the wall in their toy room and I keep the afternoon chart on the wall above the school bag nook.

I created the charts because I found I was repeating myself everyday, have you brushed your teeth… hurry up and get dressed…. is your bag packed.  Be it the kids were 3 at the time and at this age I didn’t expect them to remember, so I created a visual to help remind them.  It truly was the best thing I did.

These routine charts are available in my shop at a very reasonable price.  You can purchase them individually, all 3 in a colour bundle  or there is an option to get them personalised with your own tasks

Morning Routine

I created these charts with the order of tasks in mind.  Kids eat breakfast first thing and while they are in the kitchen they are to do their responsibility tasks (which is usually empty dishwasher and rubbish bins).  Next I prefer them to brush their teeth before they put their school uniform on to prevent toothpaste from getting onto their clean clothes (because it happens).  They are responsible for keeping their bedrooms tidy and making their beds.  I also like them to open their blinds to let in the sunshine and if it’s a clear day outside to open the window to let the fresh air in (I love having the house open and breezes flowing through).

My kids are now making their own lunches (brilliant, they like the independence), I’ll share more about this in a post this week.  So I usually prepare hubby’s lunch, do the laundry and then tidy the kitchen while the kids are getting ready.

Find morning routine chart here:  Version 1 for younger kids and Version 2 for older kids

Afternoon Routine

I had to enforce an afternoon routine when the kids started school as we had neighbourhood kids knock on the door as soon as we got home because they wanted the kids to go out and play.  I’m all for kids playing after school as they have had a long day at school, but their teachers want them to complete their homework each day and this needs to be done before they go out and play.

Find afternoon routine chart here

Evening Routine

I started this to get the kids to help me to keep their bathroom, bedroom and toy room tidy.  ie. wipe away toothpaste from the basin, towels hanging up properly etc.  The twins read a book for a minimum of 15 minutes and I read with Miss 8.  Having this reading routine has really helped the kids enjoy books and relax before lights out.

Find evening routine chart here

Bed times

Now the kids are older their bedtime has changed.  Ever since they were babies they used to go to bed at 7pm. However, over the past few months I’ve noticed that they don’t need to go to bed so early.  We now have lights off at 8pm, so they usually start to get ready for bed around 7.30pm.

I recently asked on facebook what time your kids go to bed, there was a fantastic response, if your interested to read what time other kids go to bed you can read details here.

© 2010 The Organised Housewife | All rights reserved - This post {BACK TO SCHOOL} My biggest sanity saver is our morning, afternoon and evening routine charts is provided for the convenience of The Organised Housewife readers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited.