WTF

I think I try pretty hard to get readers to my blog. So I keep an eye on my stats to see  what people are interested in so I can do more of it.

Source: amazon.com via Risha on Pinterest

I use blogger stats and google analyticals and I couldn't figure out why they were so different. Like a 50% difference. Apparently the one that advertisers look at is the google analyticals and of course that is the one that is so much lower. Hmm?
I went on google to try to figure out why such a difference and there was mostly articles from people who were wondering why as well. There was one article that I think explained it , if it was correct. They said that the reason that GA was so much lower was because if people used an advertisement blocking program those page views wouldn't show up in GA.

Source: skellyskindergarten.blogspot.com via Shawna on Pinterest

I didn't even know an advertising blocking program exists but apparently 50% of my readers do
So while it is frustrating that Google analyticals view register so low when that is the one advertisers look at but it makes sense that they want to be seen and not blocked

There is a HTML code in the article that may help with evening out your count but at this point in time it is beyond my knowledge to use.

Clean Up Competitons

Clean up competitions or how to make your kids think cleaning up is fun!

2 Minute Cleanup     

see who can clean up the most in 2 minutes, it's quick and over before they have even figures out they are cleaning up

Find 10 things to Put Away 

pick a room( their room maybe?) or let them do the whole house and see who can find ten things to put away- and have them put them away!

To Pay or Not to Pay

  Do you give your child an allowance? Do you pay them for chores?

I recently blogged about redoing my children's chore charts. About trying to finding meaningful (real help) chores for my 5 year old.
Now I want some input on what other parents are doing/or not for allowance.  I have read some articles on the Internet and apparently any money problems our future grown up children have can all be tied to whether we got the whole allowance thing right. Oh my LOL

The general consensus is that giving our children an allowance lets them learn how to manage money. My kids always seem to have money to spend from a variety of sources at different times of the year and I figured that is what they could be managing but as it is not a regular source it apparently doesn't help with the managing part. But then what are they managing? If they don't have regular expenses then what is the use of regular income? If they have $10 they have to figure if they spend it now or spend it later. Based on this idea ( regular expenses means regular income) none of my kids need an allowance as none of them have anything they need to pay for regularly. Phew because according to an allowance calculator I would be paying out $124 a month to them!

  

I am confused about what expenses a kid has anyway?

They need new shoes?
I want control over the purchases of my 5 and 9 year old so I also control the money. The 17 year old makes some of her clothing purchases and I make some of them but she also earns a  regular paycheck and probably has more disposable income than I do- no way am I giving her an allowance!

Then there is the question of do we tie allowance to chores performed? I have chores my children are expected to do each week and they need to do them because everyone who lives in this house needs to contribute to its upkeep. But what about extra chores they ask? Nope there is no "extra" stuff all of it is part of keeping our household running

 

But my children do receive some reward on a regular basis that is not cold hard cash. The two youngest have a membership on their fave computer game site ($5 a month each) and my oldest gets money for her cell phone bill ($10 a month) which I think equals the amount of chores expected of them but I don't call it an allowance, I call it "empty-the-dishwasher-without-a-fight-or-I-am-cancelling-your-membership"

To give allowance or not, to pay for chores or not I still don't have it all figured out but in my house I have two children who are savers and one can't spend it fast enough which probably reflects one of their parents style ( I am the non-spender)

 

If it's Tuesday I'm Where?

With a work schedule that changes every 4 weeks it means that I am frequently reshuffling my daycare arrangements.
We are lucky that My sister-in-law will take them if I am on afternoon shift and my Aunt (who was a preschool teacher) will come to my place once a week when I work days shifts. The rest I trade so I work on weekends when hubby is home and use my teenage daughter to cover.
Once my youngest is in school full time we will also add the daycare at school to our rotation( and I will try to find a Mon to Fri job to replace this one)

I am always telling my kids who is watching them after school but if they need to go to daycare they need to be able to remember and get there independently. So I decided to make these childcare arrangement keychains

I plan on clipping them to their backpacks on the days I am going to work so they know where they need to go at the end of the day.

I cut out circles from shrinky plastic

then labeled and decorated them so even my non reader understands what's up

then shrink them according to package directions

added them to keychain hardware I already had then found a easy on/off clip to keep them attached to their backpacks



Update My Decor

I hang things from my ceiling above our dining room table ( mostly just cause I am too lazy to drag the chairs anywhere else)

Until recently we had leaves that I had soaked in glycerin hanging on thread.

 A said that if the pieces of leaves fell in her food she would freak out ( drama queen).

I thought it might be time to update ( fall is so last October) with some hearts

Bought some card stock ( 40% off coupon from Micheal's)
and cut out various sized hearts, then decide to use my big hole punch to use up the extra paper around the hearts. Then sewed them together on my machine. Kids were impressed that you could sew paper

taadaa!  heart banner

I think I am going to make some raindrops because that is all a west coast BC winter really consists of.