Bible Based Bootcamp Day #1 Report…

Let’s see if I can post this without it all getting erased 😉

Our 1st day of bootcamp started with me getting up at 4:45!  My DH leaves at 4AM to do his 2nd job (paper route) and I was up with my youngest son at a little after 4.  So since I was awake, I just stayed up.  I went downstairs and made a cup of coffee, grabbed my bootcamp paperwork, and headed back to bed to plan my day!

Here is a picture of my little work station at the island in the kitchen.  I have taken loads of notes here and there, have my CHCHC organizer, bibles, schooling journal… and my yarn!  (I sometimes stand AT the island and knit while I wait for water to boil or something like that!)

I didn’t end up with as much time to myself in the AM as I had hoped.  You’d think getting up before 5 would give you plenty… but not when 3 of your kids are up at 5:30.  It would have started the day out horribly if I had tried to get them all to go back to bed.  They were all WIDE awake!!!

I am not going to make a scheduled list of my day to bore you (list ALWAYS bore me haha) so I am going to just kinda go along and explain how things went!

By 6AM The 3 little ones were washed up and dressed for the day!  By 6:30 all 5 kids were up and ready!  NOT BAD!!!

My 1st disciplined child was my Middle Guy "A"… go figure!  He gave me the hardest time during our last bootcamp session back in 2006! 

Here’s what happened.  We have new kittens and there is this blanket that they had pee’d on once.  Well… after it was washed, someone left it on the floor and they pee’d on it in the morning!  (UGH… potty training kittens can be annoying at times when you are busy trying to train your children!!!)  ANYWAY… they not only pee’d on the blanket… they also managed to get some of it on one of his Thomas the train books!!  That is NOT good!!  Thomas is "A"s life!!!  So… I said "we’ll get you a new book" but he FLIPPED OUT!!!  I mean… he had a MAJOR nutty and it didn’t matter WHAT I said… he was uncontrollably crying saying THAT was the book he wanted and not a new one!  So… let the spankings begin!!  He wasn’t very quick to submit to my telling him to "control himself"… so it took a couple spanks and some talks and hugs…then he was ok.

I made it through the first trial of the day… but there were MANY more to come!!!

We started the day off with a "Family Meeting".  That is what I was working on up in bed… just like a meeting you’d plan for the workplace… I had a whole rundown of the things that needed to be discusses!  My DH was working the evening shift, so we were able to do the meeting together! (as you can see by my oldest daughter’s face to the left… we are FAR from perfect!! haha)

Since I am the one with all the time to do the planning, he didn’t even really know quite how I was planning on doing things.  So… I went over things and he jumped in and let the kids know how he felt about things and it went SOOOO good!!!  Some of the topics discussed were our RULES, daily schedule, planned "training" sessions, etc.

One bad habit we are trying to break is eating BEFORE meals.  My kids love to get up and eat dry cereal while they hang out and watch TV.  Those days are OVER!!!  We’ve told them that there will be NO TV, NO EATING until 8AM breakfast, and NO EATING anywhere but the Dining Room!  This is a HUGE shocker!!  The older kids were fine with it… well… PRETTY fine with it.  I still heard a few "I’m hungry!" and "can I get some cereal?" but they were quick to respond "Yes Ma’am" after telling them no and re-explaining our new rule.  BUT… I’m afraid that my 3 year old daughter was NOT ok with this.

She DEMANDED cereal.  I said "no" and so she went to the cupboard and took it out anyway.  I took it away and she freaked and so we had a session of discipline and then she was ok.

One main thing we did to plan for bootcamp was to rid the house of TOYS!!!  ALL toys… and I mean ALL toys are in our spare bathroom all neatly organized by toy type.  We have the "car" bucket, the "train" bucket, the "kitchen set stuff", the "stuffed animals", the "big blocks".  The only things NOT in there are the Legos, which are in a bucket in my oldest son’s closet along with his army men bucket. 

This is what the rooms looked like last night before bed… I am pretty impressed with how the "no toy" thing makes my life SO much easier at the end of the day.

Big Guy "C"s room… ("A" was following me around and made sure to be on a bed in each picture!)

 

The girls room… "E" got in the picture too… wearing one of his big sister’s purple Croc’s and chewing on the other…GROSS!! haha

 

and this is "A" and "E"s room!

The baskets you see up on the bureau are not toys… they are the kids clothing baskets.  (which I have to empty today and get control of the laundry!!)

When the kids want to use a toy, they need to ask me and I go and get it for them.  (we are leaving our room locked until they get into the habit of not going in and helping themselves!) Then when they want to go to the next toy, they need to pick up and do and exchange!  That is working SO nicely!!

So we got ready for the 1st meal and the kids sat on the floor to wait for me to individually ask them to go and use the potty and wash up before eating…(please take note at how happy "A" looks in this picture.  He is smiling a BIG smile over at his big brother…)

Let’s just say that the happiness did not last very long! 

Here’s a picture of the kids after they ate, doing their "Yes Ma’am" training. (When Daddy is home… there is also "Yes Sir" training and I LOVE how "L" says it… "Yes Sewer" haha)  "A" wanted to play and cried during the first part of the training until I took him into the bathroom for disciplining…

but the kids had fun!

I told "C" to run up the stairs twice.  The training consists of me throwing out orders and demanding a "Yes Ma’am response"…

I told "Z" to go and play a song on the piano while she jumped up and down.  If you can’t tell… she is in mid air!!

"A" DID end up enjoying the training.  I told him to balance a ball on his head!

"L" thought it was GREAT that I told her to throw the soft football at her big brother!! 

And even Little Guy "E" got into the training!  I told him to go over and grab his big brother’s nose!  What an obedient little boy! hehe

The session ended with me commanding "C" to lay on the floor and all of his siblings to pig pile on top of him!!  FUN FUN!! haha  Come on… this isn’t the army!  We can have SOME fun!!!

and speaking of the "army".  When my husband was ending his junior year in High School… he left for his 1st round of REAL "bootcamp" for 8 weeks that summer!  It was a split program where you could do the 16 weeks over 2 summers!  He went back the following summer after his senior year and did his last 8 weeks of AIT training!

I asked him if I could "interview" him to get a glimpse into what bootcamp is really like!  It was a lot of fun!!  

See… I am planning on writing a "Bible Based Bootcamp" article/ organizer type thing eventually.  I have always LOVED using other women’s planners for housecleaning and bible study, etc.  I enjoy doing this and I am keeping close track of what works, what doesn’t, what I think would be good to incorporate into bootcamp, etc.  When I am done and feel like the kids have really retained the training and are forming good habits, I will lay off and start writing!!  I’ve had lots of people ask me about bootcamp and I’d love to have something to share with them to give them a good outline of how I’ve done it!  I did it in the past and have learned from many mistakes.  I saw why it DIDN’T stick the first time and I am already finding out things that are not working THIS time.  "Practice make perfect", right?  Too bad us stupid humans can’t be absolutely perfect…but we sure can run this race with endurance and learn from our mistakes!!  It just takes discipline!!   And that is what this training is all about!!!

Ok… back to my day…

The kids all cleaned up their areas at the table and I got the kitchen picked up while the kids had some time to play.  (my plan is to have them brush their teeth after every meal… but I forgot after breakfast!! OOPS)

Then I called them all down for schoolwork!  We went over some "spelling rules" and I didn’t some flashcards with them and the little kids colored and ate raisins!  I will be doing more indepth 1:1 schooling with them as the days go on… but I spent quite a bit of time just disciplining them to sit quietly and not act innappropriately at the table!

Which brings me to what today’s TRAINING SESSION was!  "Table Manners"!!!  When they kids sat down for lunch, I went over a BIG list of table manners and even added some along the way as the kids did things wrong!  "A" ended up putting his cloth napkin on his head and then used it as a cape, "Z" ended up playing in her food", "E" threw food across the table, "C" was loud, "L" didn’t want to eat something so she pushed it over to ME instead of leaving it on her plate… it was NOT pretty!!  This is a training session that will be continued until they get it right!!  We’ll be learning how to set tables, how to use a cloth napkin properly, how to eat over our food, etc.

OK… now onto how our "QUIET TIME" went.  For the first time in MONTHS it was actually pretty QUIET!!!  I LOVED it!!!

"E" ended up falling asleep at his gate: (I took this and then moved him to his bed and cozied him all up so he’d sleep longer!!!) (and yes…I know… Miss Cloth Diaper has her son in a disposable. haha All of the cloth diapers were out on the line after I washed them!!  I use disposables and night…but not usually at naptime!  One of the failures I wrote in my journal was not keeping up on laundry!!!)

"L" was VERY tired and fell asleep quickly!  This will NOT happen again!! haha I know kids need their rest… but when she sleeps she ends up staying up WAY too late and driving us crazy!!!  I’ll talk about our evening later on…

You have to admit this pic is pretty darn cute!!  She fell asleep with her little pink bible that our friends Kevin & Jessie gave her for her birthday!  It is her new favorite thing!!

 

"A" played quietly in his big brother’s room, playing trains & blocks…

 

And the 2 oldest stayed downstairs in the Living Room. 

"Z" looked at books on the couch…

And "C" drew and then cuddled with the kittens…(I LOVE this picture!!)

 

The older kids ended up going outside while the 2 little ones were still sleeping!  Then once they all were up, I let them watch a movie we had gotten from Netflix yesterday.  I always want them to watch it THAT day so we can return it and get the most out of our $9.99 subscription!!  I LOVE Netflix!!

OK… before I get off topic…haha…I’ll keep going…

The kids did really good at dinner time.  I only had to spank once when "Z" got up from the table without asking, ran around the kitchen with her food, and dropped some of it on the floor!  She is the worst for getting up and coming out to get more of something!!  She’ll learn.

After dinner the kids helped me pick up around the house.  The older kids folded some washcloths and we went around picking up the things that had gotten left laying around the house.

I started our bedtime routine at 6:30 and all the kids were ready for bed; teeth brushed, jammies on… by 7!  I took them all into the girls room for some bible stories. 

Here they are all waiting to listen!  They did pretty good… all except the baby who kept climbing up on the girl’s kitchen set!

I almost don’t even want to start talking about bedtime because I’m afraid I’ll have post traumatic stress!!!!  haha  It was NOT pretty.  This is where my Sweet little 3 year old "L" comes into the picture BIG TIME!!!

She will NOT sleep today!!!  She will sit quietly and watch "Little Bear" and then we will have a peaceful night!!

I ended up having to discipline repeatedly as she kicked me and yelled at me and laughed at me!!!  She was laughing AS I was spanking her at once point!  This did NOT last long and I was able to keep my cool and not spank in anger.  (Thank you, Lord!!)

This is my little seat I put outside of the rooms to monitor for a while…you can see my little handy "rod of discpline" on the chair.  (and my knitting on the floor haha)

I allow the 2 older kids to have a little extra time NOT in bed.  This is what led to all the problems with "L".  She would not stay in bed.  I really don’t blame her, since her sister was on the floor by the gate playing.  THAT is why tonite will be VERY different!!  When she doesn’t nap… she is asleep before "Z" even goes to bed.

Here’s "Z" playing with shapes…

and this is what Big Guy "C" does for an hour each night… READS!

In my homeschooling journal (where I am also keeping track of our bootcamp weeks) I wrote "8:45 Dad home, Thank God!!!  "L" is still up and being miserable!!!"  By then "Z" had been in bed for a long time, but "L" was still driving us up a wall!!! 

Finally things quieted down by about 9 and we both went to bed!! haha 

So… Bible Based Bootcamp Day #1 ended with a bang!  Let’s hope Day #2 is a bit better!!

🙂 B