When your kids get old enough to handle a basic schedule (beyond tying shoes at 8, using potty at 8:15, etc) it's the perfect time to start building lifelong good habits about decision-making, responsibility and respect.  Here's the trick:  you want to give them a hand in the creation of their own schedule, while still getting them to do everything you want and need them to get done.  The way to accomplish this is to give them choices.  Nuts you say?  On the contrary, as long as the choices you give them are all within the scope of what you want done, it's going to work out great.  For example, you want your child to play a musical instrument – that point is non-negotiable.  But why not give them the choice of any instrument they would like to play?  You've empowered them and still gotten what you wanted out of the situation.   By making them an active participant in their own lives you will be making them into more fully-formed individuals and not just robots who follow orders well.  And they'll respect you too!  In fact, the years before they become a teen-ager is when you REALLY have to reach them – and show them that you are not the enemy!  Once they hit their teens, forget about it, they won’t be responsive again until they’re at least 30.

Click here to visit Amy's site, Bootcamp for your Mind!