New kids' rules

[Trivium Academy]

I feel like the kids should have their own 'room' rules since they are sharing. I know ds4 will need training with his but can you think of something I've left out?

 

Kids' Room Rules

Put your toys away after you are done playing with them and before getting out something new.

 

All toys and clothes will be put away before dinner.

 

Be kind to each other, help when you can even if it's not your job.

 

Ask permission to play with each other's toys. Play gently with each other's toys and take care of them. Put them away when you're done.

 

Work together.

 

Absolutely no yelling, hitting, spitting, or treating each other badly.

 

If you follow these rules, the rewards will be big.

 

 

This is outside of their chores list which includes making their beds daily.

Anything else?

[Jen500]

My dss each have their own shelf and bulletin board. The rule with these is -No touching anything on the other's shelf/board. If you don't want your brother to touch it, put it away on your shelf.

 

Also, I try to keep rules very specific. That just works better with my boys.

 

I hope the room-sharing works out for everyone!

[Trivium Academy]

The sharing is working out so far, we're about to add nighttime read alouds and that will be the true test. Hopefully I can convince Dh to read to ds4 while I read to dd7 in separate rooms. :)

[Jen500]

The sharing is working out so far, we're about to add nighttime read alouds and that will be the true test. Hopefully I can convince Dh to read to ds4 while I read to dd7 in separate rooms. :)

We've had to do the separate reading a lot--me with the older ones and dh reading to ds3 in another room. We usually sit on the couch though, for more space.

[snickelfritz]

a good one I've heard is that they must ask permission to get on sibling's bed.

 

FTR: They are on the floor because they like it. Not some weird punishment.:001_huh: They have perfectly lovely all white, stackable, almost brand-new beds that I would have loved to have had when I was little and sharing a room with my sister.

 

Sorry. Off topic.

[abbeyej]

My only advice would be not to make it a bigger deal than it is. My kids (a boy and girl) are a little older than yours, and granted, they've always shared a room, but the problems really have been minimal. Most toys are shared -- there are only a very few things that are absolutely "owned" by one child an not to be touched by the other child without permission -- and I don't generally think of the rules as any different than they would be if the kids *didn't* share a room... Just generally treating their sibling and their sibling's things with respect and kindness.

 

Also, if you absolutely can't make read-alouds together work out (and I don't really understand why they couldn't -- many people with much greater age-ranges than your kids have managed to make it work, even if it sometimes means one child isn't paying rapt attention on occasion), then I would alternate which parent reads to which child. I would avoid any semblance of favoritism that always having one parent read to one child might foster.

[Jumping In Puddles]

My only advice would be not to make it a bigger deal than it is. My kids (a boy and girl) are a little older than yours, and granted, they've always shared a room, but the problems really have been minimal. Most toys are shared -- there are only a very few things that are absolutely "owned" by one child an not to be touched by the other child without permission -- and I don't generally think of the rules as any different than they would be if the kids *didn't* share a room... Just generally treating their sibling and their sibling's things with respect and kindness.

 

Also, if you absolutely can't make read-alouds together work out (and I don't really understand why they couldn't -- many people with much greater age-ranges than your kids have managed to make it work, even if it sometimes means one child isn't paying rapt attention on occasion), then I would alternate which parent reads to which child. I would avoid any semblance of favoritism that always having one parent read to one child might foster.

 

:iagree: Unless they are actively annoying each other and you don't want to constantly hear them fight about it, I wouldn't make a big deal about it.

 

If you give them a list of room rules, I wonder if you will suddenly hear about all the rule breaking going on that may not have been a big deal - for example sitting on each others beds. My dd is fine if her brother is on her bed but if I made a rule against it, she would get mad and then come and tell on him... ugh, I don't need that! :lol:

[5wolfcubs]

My kids have always shared rooms and like others have mentioned, we've never done rules per se (unlike meal time rules).

I can't think of anything to add but if you go with formal rules, how about making them shorter? Not number of rules shorter but shorter in wording. Easier to remember and to remind by! Also some of the rules are general things (like no yelling), not room specific. Don't you have a great list of family rules already?

 

So room specific could be:

One toy out.

Clean before dinner.

Ask to play.

Work together!

 

If you had 5 short, specific room rules you could have one for each finger! :)

[Trivium Academy]

Good idea Lee, thank you!

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

I absolutely understand the whole notion of "one toy out." But the reality for us has been "one game out." Playing with multiple toys and making an elaborate world with them is one of the great joys of childhood. I don't like multiple *activities* out -- Candyland and dominos and all the doll clothes and fifty-'leven legos. But all the cars and dolls and blocks? Absolutely.

 

One thing I would do now that you have the chance to do it is to make it so that having all the toys (not games) out means you have 25 things to clean up between you. Pack away, rotate, simplify. Imaginations will be sparked, life will be simpler.

 

(And I consider playmobile or whatever your big "system" toy to be one thing, even though it's an amazing number of pieces.)

 

Perhaps the solely owned toys could be the "one at a time" toys?

 

Anyway, just a thought.

[HFClassicalAcademy]

I have 3 who share a room: 6yo ds, 4.5yo dd, and 2.75yo ds.

 

We don't do the rules for the same reason that others pointed out...they need to follow the same rules regardless of being in their room or not (sharing, being nice, etc.).

 

As for the bedtime read alouds...we do 2 books every night and rotate who gets to choose. For the most part, my oldest two always like the same books so it works out with them. I don't believe in separating them for this. I feel like it creates a whole entitlement issue. Everyone needs to learn to be able to sit through one story without a problem. They don't have to listen to the story they didn't choose, but they have to be respectful and quiet.

 

Good luck with the bedroom sharing!!

 

Liz