PERSONAL SHOPPERS

"It used to be quite a chore to get my daughters, Katrina, seven, and Valerie, three, to try on hand-me-downs and the prior year's clothing whenever a new season rolled around.  That was until I created The Clothes STore Game.  For each girl, I spread out a categorized selection of clothes: pants, pajamas, dresses, and the like.  The girls come "shopping" and select items to try on int eh dressing room (my closet).  When they've tried on enough for that day, they bring their purchases to the cashier (me) to be tallied.  My daughters each pay with real money, givin to them just for this purpose, and get to take the clothes back to their rooms in a shopping bag.  Depending on how many outfits there are to be tried on, we play the game one or two more times and always have fun."

Theresa Medoff
Wilmington, Delaware

Controlling Clutter

Legos.  Work sheets.  Soccer cleats.  It's one of the paradoxes of family life:  nobody can ever find the things they need, and yet there are things everywhere--underfoot, under the bed, on every tabletop.  Our paradoxical solution?  Less stuff means more stuff.  The more clutter you clear away, the easier it will be for your family to find and use the things you actually need.  So clutter, beware!  There's nowhere to hide.

Maintain control.  Determine your worst clutter zones -- inside the front door, may be the kitchen counter.  Then develop a system for managing incoming items and stick with it.  Make sure your dis understand the strategy, and solicit their help in implementing it.

Save selectively.  Do you need to keep all of your children's artwork?  HOld onto every catalog?  Store outgrown tosy and clothes in the garage?  Wherever stuff is accumulating, ask yourself why, and whether you can live without it.

Do more, bring home less.  It may seem like clutter multiples while you're  not looking -- but he truth is that things end up in our homes because we buy them, kkep them, or collect them.  Encourage your family to do activities that don't entail acuiqisition:  visit a  museum, take a bike ride or a hike, or build a sand castle at the beach.

by Deanna F. Cook

Graduate News

Here's to our newest Personal Management Diploma Earner:  Cynthia


Always Be A Student

Keep on learning, (graduate's name),

Though your graduation's done;

Your whole life's an education

That has only just begun.



Your diploma is the first big step,

For knowledge is the special key

To winning what you want in life

And being who you want to be.



If you'll always be a student,

You'll find the secrets to success

And travel on the golden road

To peace and happiness.


By Joanna Fuchs

PERSONAL MANAGEMENT

Requirement #19 Catch up on one household chore and keep it up for one month.




Wish me luck!