My 6 year old is the love of my life. She's full of spunk and energy and is incredibly smart and quick witted. Lately however, those qualities that I love about her so much have been bringing us less than joy. She's turned into the 6 year old going on 17. I'm not really sure what brought on the sudden change, but parts of our days have definitely been challenging the past few weeks. She thinks she knows everything, whines when she doesn't get what she wants and rolls her eyes at me. The other day was the last straw. It was the first few days of summer vacation and my nerves were shot. I decided something had to be done. She's going to be spending a lot of time at home this summer (only doing camp every other week) and I work at home, so in an effort for some peace and structure, I decided on creating a summer schedule for her. I also decided to give her chores/responsibilities she needs to tend to every day, and limit her tv to an hour in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon (after lunch til bedtime).
In an effort to avoid creating a riot in the house I asked her to help me make the list. We sat together and thought of things she should be doing every day and household chores she could do at her age. She seemed excited for it, but I figured the first actual day of the new schedule would be the true test. I woke up expecting the worst and was completely, and pleasantly, surprised by her. She woke up and immediately asked for the dust rag (her house chore was dusting yesterday) and just did really well the rest of the day. Day two went just as well. She was super excited to be allowed to run the vacuum today. I'm pleasantly surprised, relieved and proud of her for taking the change so well. Bring on summer!
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