Typing

In a suddenly adult moment, I realized that my children were not going to be taught how to type by their schools.  I guess the schools can only focus on state testing? Expect students to use their texting thumbs forever? It was up to me to launch them into the world as typists.  I expect this skill to be useful for at least a few years until whatever new mind-blowing device appears that we can't even imagine yet. I decided it was worth it. 

I scrolled through a few free typing programs and settled on BBC's Dance Mat Typing.  This proved to be too silly for Genevieve, so I let her switch to this program, but the rest of us go around cooing "type on me" in a British accent.

I make Genevieve and Ben work on their typing every day as part of their chores.  They complain about it.  They don't see the need for this skill (please weigh in if you think this a useful skill anymore!). I was hoping they'd be great typists by summer's end, but they're both only about three-quarters of the way through memorizing the keys.  Oh well.  There's always next summer.

The Best Jobs for Toddlers

I found a great job for Phoebe and she agrees (key point of this being a great job).  I let her stand on the stool (important!) in order to pinch off the eyes of the storage potatoes.  She can't really break the potatoes or the basket I keep them in.  She can see her progress, and this is a truly useful way to keep our potatoes nice. 

Other best jobs for toddlers?  Phoebe has lots of energy to spare!

Phoebe Pounds Cabbage

My dad couldn't resist the huge heads of cabbage from Uncle Merv in Thanksgiving week.  My basement is now highly insulated as part of our new boiler installation, so I didn't know where to ferment cabbage into sauerkraut.  But with cabbage so cheap (ok, my dad wouldn't let me pay him back, but I think it was something ridiculous like $1.50) and labor so willing, I had to experiment. It's a feat to find real work for toddlers (they're not easily fobbed off with fake chores!) that is actually helpful with minimal potential for breakage, bodily harm, and disaster.

I borrowed a mandoline from a neighbor and sliced two heads.  Phoebe took up the meat mallet with proud purpose to pound the cabbage to release its juices. Another key to having a toddler helper:  act like it's normal and don't over-praise because then you will mark their helpfulness as somehow abnormal. I want to encourage all the helpers!  We all eat food in this house and by gum, we can all pitch in.

I lugged the crock up to the balcony - I'm going to try fermenting outside!  The crock is in a sheltered spot and will get strong morning sun.  So far the weather has been fairly mild, so we'll see how the bacteria like being outside in the fresh air to make sauerkraut.

A Clean Room and Bed Pouches

The major project over Christmas vacation was a deep-clean of the children's bedroom.  It was not fun. I could not bear to take any "before" photos.  It started with my husband banning everyone from the room while he boxed up all the junk and washed and vacuumed and dusted.

Then, Ben and Genevieve and I sorted through the contents of the boxes, keeping the good stuff, throwing junk away, and sending other things to the thrift store.  It was not fun.  There were sharp words, tears, and worse (tantrums!).

It was not fun.

 It required all my adult skill to focus on the end goal:  a reasonably clean room that we were not embarrassed to have children or visiting aunties see, and a reasonably tidy room that allowed Genevieve and Ben to work on projects, find their supplies, see their books, and sleep happily.

I will say it again:  it was not fun.

But now!  Now it's a pleasure to walk into their room and it's not hard for me to say, hey, the clutter is building up, take a few minutes to put things back where they belong.

When my husband roared into that room in December, I protested feebly that I try to teach the kids how to clean instead of doing it for them; he retorted that you don't teach drowning kids how to swim, you save the kids and then later teach them how to swim.  Yes.  So wise!  So he saved them, and now we're working again on teaching them how to clean.

One of the little problems I solved was a place for the in-bed reading books.  Usually, we cuddle on the living room sofas to read a book aloud at bedtime (currently, The King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry, one of my childhood favorites).

But then Genevieve and Ben like to read in a bed a little, too.  They had nowhere to put their books or their book lights.  I whipped up two little pouches.  Ben's is made from an old sturdy workshirt of my husband's; it tucks under his mattress.   Genevieve's is made from some fabric left from her baby nursery curtains, a Waverly print whose colors I adore.  I added ribbon ties to the back so it could be tied on the top rail of her bunk; I sewed some extra lines along the top to lend it sturdiness.

Any comments or wisdom on children and messy bedrooms?  I'm always eager to hear how other people manage this.

Little Sister Makes It Fun

How many ways are there to make washing dishes fun?  My kids know of two:  loud music or getting the little sister up on a stool to "help."  Unfortunately, when the big kids tire of the "help" and put her down, Phoebe is offended and crushed. She roars at the top of her lungs. She is starting to want to contribute to the running of the house, too.

What My Big Kids Did This Summer

They each got their own library card and became responsible for their own accounts. Such excellent training in due dates, fines, and talking to adults to get information about their accounts and check out books.  When you forget your library card, you can't check out the movie!  When you return an empty movie case to the library, you have to remember to get the movie out of the player at home and bring it back!  

I looked for these kinds of learning opportunities with money, too.  Both Genevieve and Ben looked after pets and plants for various neighbors on vacation for some cash.  I could see them deciding to commit to something and learning to stick with it after the charm of someone else's house wore off. 

 

Every day except Sunday, Genevieve and Ben have chores.  In the morning, I write up a chore list and it lays around until every item is crossed off.  I want them to do their chores in the morning and definitely before any fun activities (this is a great motivator if something fun is scheduled for the day!).  On Fridays, they dust and vacuum the downstairs and steps.  On Saturdays, they clean the bathroom.  Every day they need to practice piano and when there is a basket of clean laundry in their room, they need to fold and put away their laundry.  Monday through Thursday, I assign chores based on what work needs to be done around the house.  This could be various cleaning jobs not covered by Friday and Saturday's house cleaning, or outside jobs such as sweeping sidewalks and mowing grass.  Phoebe's care is not part of the chore list, by the way.

 New this summer, they also take turns washing the supper dishes.  Now they understand firsthand why I always made them clean their plates - the food scraps must go in their mouths or the compost buckets because they are not welcome in the dishwashing sink!  My husband and I have been training them to see the smears and bits of food on poorly washed dishes.  I had to work with Ben to hold his hands and the dishes down in the basin - he tended to hold the dishes in front of his chest with rivers of dishwater on his arms and the cabinets.  They had to learn how to stack the dishdrainer so the dishes could drain.

They also went to camps this summer.  Ben loves overnight camp at a Church of the Brethren camp with family history.  Genevieve tried overnight camp last summer and prefers day camps.  She did a survival camp in our local park, as well as a book-making camp at a local museum.  They loved these opportunities for meeting new people, learning new skills and jokes, and getting out of chores for a week!

This post has been invaluable reflection for me as a parent, to realize how Genevieve and Ben have matured and how much I have enjoyed watching them develop.  I'm so proud of them!  

Genevieve Washes Dishes

One day I asked Genevieve to take the full compost bucket out to the compost pile at the end of the yard.  She fussed and demurred. Her daddy jokingly offered to trade her his dish-washing stint for the compost run.  She wasn't joking and she accepted so fast, his mouth dropped open.

I had been meaning to start Genevieve on washing dishes, but I was not sure I had prepared myself adequately for the likelihood of broken dishes and vast, heedless quantities of water and soap. I could see myself turning into a shrieking harpy over this experience, and it was just easier to wash the ding-dong dishes myself.

Well, Genevieve is doing pretty well!  Probably because she's nine-and-a-half, she needs less instruction because she's seen her parents wash dishes so often that some of the moves just come naturally to her. I still have to remind her not to just dunk dishes, but to actually use the cloth to rub all over.  She also tends to hold dishes at her chest-level instead of down in the water, meaning the dish water runs back her arms and gets on sleeves and countertops (eek - the vast heedless quantities of water!).  At this point, my goal is for her to wash the supper dishes once a week.  And I think I'll start teaching Ben how to dry. . . 

Ben Irons

He did not want to, but when I taught him how to use the iron today, his love of order took over.  He took pleasure in getting out the wrinkles and matching up the corners.  However, I stood by him the entire time because newbies tend to forget to set the hot iron up on its heel.  Sure enough, we had some close calls as four napkins were ironed.

Ben wanted to know why he needed to iron and I told him so that he could iron his shirts if he wanted to wear dress shirts when he's a man. I suddenly recalled that his father does not iron his own shirts.  I kept this realization to myself.  There's no need for logic in raising children, am I right?

He also learned to mow the yard this summer.  The most important part was remembering to put on actual shoes, not flip flops.  There are lots of skippers, but as our yard is not very tidy to begin with, it doesn't matter.

And here, for a bonus, is Genevieve washing the laundry room floor. I can't think of a new chore she learned this summer, unless it's answering the phone.  She would call that pure fun, however, and it's great entertainment for the callers.

Supper Helpers

(I have been absent here as I struggle with my new laptop (and then lounge on the beach for a bit). But I have persevered with the laptop and I'm convinced I will never get Alzheimer's because of all the new computer things I forced myself to tackle. But I'm back!  Blogging from a new laptop with photos!)

There were a number of times during the school year that I lost my temper because not a single child in this house could manage to set the table without my endless prompting and cajoling and (then) yelling.  We all felt bad.

I had the idea to call a child to set the table before I started cooking dinner, but I kept getting deep into supper prep before remembering this plan.

Vietnam fried rice

Then I had another idea:  a supper helper.  This child would enter the kitchen with me when I started cooking supper.  This child would fetch and carry and do any simple job in supper prep and somewhere in the process, set the table.  The children would take turns doing this.  I wrote it on the wipe-off sheet on the fridge so everyone could check who was the supper helper.

Ben prepares the snow peas

It has been working beautifully.  Perhaps it's the individual attention or the addition of kitchen prep jobs to the setting table job, but the children have positive attitudes about being supper helpers.  And they are truly helpful.  They find things in the fridge and pantry for me, fill pots with water, wash vegetables, run out to the yard for some herb sprigs, or take the bunny his vegetable scraps.  And glory-be they set the table without a fuss.

I love that they are learning first-hand the work and pleasure of getting meals on the table. I've been far more casual about cooking lessons because they often take on a cooking task as a supper helper.

Here's Genevieve making guacamole to go on black bean bowls. Wasn't she proud to ask her daddy how he liked the quacamole tonight?

2014 Summer Goals for the Children

I feel like summer is really upon us, like there's not much time left!  So we have already begun to work on these goals, and I'm just codifying them here to remind my September self.

Genevieve (age 8)

1. sewing lessons with Mom 

2. piano lessons with Mom

3. cooking lessons with Mom

4. mother's helper to two families (possibly - this depends on how it goes)

5. learn to hang up and take down laundry

All ready to be a mother's helper - a little present she put together for the child.

Ben (age 6)

1. ironing lessons with Mom

2. piano lessons with Mom

3. cooking lessons with Mom

4. read aloud to keep reading skills current

He wanted to make tapioca.

I'm a little vague on how the cooking and sewing lessons will progress.  I'm going to wing those. I'll try to report on the progress.

Ben has just started piano with me, and I have started a very successful new policy for screen time.  However many minutes of piano they practice, that's how many minutes they get to spend on the computer on a parent-approved site or activity.  This is a great motivational tool because they have no other regular screen time - it happens by chance or parental tolerance.

I have some freelance work, so I've been telling the kids to babysit themselves in the afternoon for one to

two hours while I edit.  They may only interrupt me in an emergency.  It's rather rocky yet, but we're persevering.  I also bought a laptop so I can sit under a tree at the pool and work while they swim.  Setting up this laptop makes me feel confused and old (Windows 8, sigh).  I persevere.

Sweet siblings occasionally.

Typical wrestling.

Recently I've started having the kids do the Friday cleaning (dusting/vacuuming) and then the bathroom cleaning on Saturday by themselves.  I work on other cleaning projects and occasionally check on their progress.  It's been wonderful!  They don't clean very thoroughly because they are still learning, but I'm more interested in developing their work ethic right now than the actual results.  Occasionally I re-teach a specific job or make them go back and do a shoddy job over again, but mostly I just accept a kid-cleaned house because I didn't have to do it all by myself.  Wow, I love this stage!

I didn't do a day-by-day schedule, but I did put a wipe-off sheet on the fridge with the weekly events and extras.  I'm just feeling my way into this summer, and so far, we are really enjoying the break from the school schedule.

Everyday Details

Here is a collection of details from my life, organized after Leila and Rosie's method of pretty/happy/funny/real. 

These old fabric patches are pretty.  They came to me from my cousin via my aunt.  My cousin and his household started a quilt and then gave it up.  I am thrilled to get the patches - beautiful calicos, feedsack, and seventies prints.  My plan is to make a patchwork picnic quilt, but I'm already chewing on the idea that I might like this fabric too much to allow it to be slung on the ground or tossed in the trunk. . .

Here are my happy children, washing the front porch.  If a chore involves water, my children are all over it.  Our porch gets incredibly grimy from the traffic and, this summer, road construction.  That does not mean we wash it more often (this was the first time this summer), just that the water is blacker when we do.

We used about 20 minutes before bedtime one night - I was so pleased at how fast it went and then they washed their feet, put their dirty clothes in the hamper, and put on their pajamas.

I thought it was funny when I blazed around the house making the cord tacos that my children came along in my wake, crafting and creating, too.  Genevieve's crafting spurt also happened after I allowed her to hang over my shoulder as I looked at my Pinterest feed.  She put a flashlight in a mason jar that she covered with fabric.  I don't know what Ben is making - probably some paper food for the dollies.

Here is my real confession:  I made adorable little yogurt panna cotta cups for packed lunches.  I had made them once before and thought them a little flavorless, but this time, they really were, despite the extra honey and nutmeg I added and the pretty blackberries on top.  Furthermore, the panna cotta separated into odd layers after a few days and the children refused to eat them.  Not to be outdone by them and the compost pile, I blendered the panna cotta into breakfast smoothies one morning.