Our Family Home Base

I love a plan and a system when it comes to motherhood, but it has to be an easy one or I won’t be able to stick with it! Are you the same? Are you trying to get a good game plan going as we dive into summer? Wanting to help your kiddos learn good behavior? I’m excited to share our family home base! It’s exactly what I need, and my kids need, to have some structure in our summer and help our family function well! Today I’m sharing our set up as inspiration for you to create your own! If you want an easy jump start, I have all of these immediate download printables in my shop. Whether you use my printables, or get ideas for your own, I hope you feel encouraged and inspired to make your own home base set up that fits your family!

The best part about this home base is that you can set it up as easily or detailed as you want. I laminated everything, but you could also just print and stick them up! The main point is…..putting in some effort to get a system in place is going to help you in the long run! Work smarter not harder right?

SUPPLIES:
Card stock paper (I like the matte photo kind..it just prints nicely. I got ours at Walmart.)
Hole Puncher
Printables (or make your own!)
1×3 inch dry erase magnets
Magnetic Dry Erase Boards (I got ours at Hobby Lobby on sale!)
Adhesive Magnets (Love these because you can peel the back off and attach to anything you want to stick up! I got ours at Hobby Lobby)

OPTIONAL SUPPLIES:
Self Adhesive Laminate Sheets (optional. you don’t have to laminate.)
Magnets with Hooks (optional-these are at Hobby Lobby.)
Sticker Paper (optional. I used this for putting my chore list to the magnets.)

PRINTABLES IF YOU WANT TO GET THEM DESIGNED AND READY TO PRINT:
$8.99 —FULL SET- HOME BASE PRINTABLES– IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD

 

CHORE CHART:
Do your kids do chores around the house? I’m talking more than just their bedroom clean up? I was shocked to find out, from my kids, that most of their friends didn’t. SHOCKED. Because, growing up, we always had a little list of house chores that we helped with. There were 4 kids in my family and we all did our part to keep things nice. I have implemented that same structure into our family life now. My main issue was HOW I shared the chore list. I’ve done different methods…but always ended up doing scrap paper with names at the top and jotted down the 3-4 tasks for that day. It just always was a pain. So I wanted to make a system that would-LONG TERM-make it easier to assign chores! I took the time to write down all of the chores that we regularly, and not so regularly, need to get done. We don’t need to clean out the car every day…but it’s a task that I can forget about and now it’s on the board so I can assign it to a kiddo or two to tackle! I used sticker paper to easily type, print and attach to the magnets. But you could get that part of the job done any way you want. You can print on regular paper and glue stick them to the magnets! I just found it easier this way.

MEALTIME JOBS:
This is a huge thing I’ve wanted to implement “formally” into our family routine. We’ve done this over the years on and off…but never officially and I wanted to make it easy for the kids to know what their job is for that week or that day. We have 5 kids who are capable of doing one little job to make mealtime run smoother…and they actually feel excited and proud about it (most of the time haha.) I think it’s important for the kids to not just show up-eat-and leave! I’m trying to raise responsible and helpful adults and it starts when they’re young!

BEHAVIOR CHART:
I wanted to create a visual for my boys. We are in a challenging season with their behavior right now. They have a lot of energy, opinions and emotions. haha. Your kids too??? I found that having something they can visually see and shoot for…helps! I also didn’t want anything super complicated! They start in the green…but then have the option to go higher if they make good choices. As long as they are in the top three areas they can earn good behavior hole punches in their reward cards. (more on that below.)

The warning section is just that…a warning…and if they still can’t pull it together I’ll give them a timeout. They take a minute in their bed to regroup. Consequence is losing a privilege that mom and dad decide. By showing me they are making good choices or being extra helpful/kind..they can move back up. But they can not earn back whatever consequence they got.

I printed out our Family Rules – It’s important for all of us to know what we are working for as a family!

REWARD CARDS:
S-I-M-P-L-E…..that’s what I needed when it came to a reward system. With 6 kids…(or any amount of kids really haha) I just can’t imagine passing out pretend money or coins or tickets. I needed a visual for my kids to work towards that can encourage them to work hard on chores and good behavior…but not make it HARDER for me. The whole point of this is to have a system that helps me- not adds more work for me! So the idea is simple….When my kids do their chores, they get a hole punch in their card. (IT’S A WHOLE THING they love it!) If they show great behavior that day, they get a hole punch. Maybe I see them do something so above and beyond kind…hole punch time! (But I’m stingy with it!) The treat that they earn can be as simple as picking out ice cream at the grocery store….to staying up late for a movie night!

I hope this example of a family home base was helpful! You got this mama.
FULL SET- HOME BASE PRINTABLES– IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD

I also divided them up into two smaller sets in case you’re just looking for one aspect of our family home base!
CHORE CHART, REWARD CARDS & MEALTIME JOBS — IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD
BEHAVIOR CHART & REWARD CARDS — IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD