I love summer. I love summer for so many reasons. My main reason is just being home with my kids and getting to go do fun things. I genuinely love having a home full of kid (including their friends) I love the sound of my front and back doors opening and slamming shut and children run around the house and in and out of the kitchen grabbing food. These sounds are like music to my heart.
Another, equally important, reason is so that my kids can help with the work around the house. When we first had these 4 kids so close together I looked forward to the day when they would be my working army. We would be able to accomplish anything with 2 late 30 year olds and 4 able teenagers. Then last year I realizes if I wanted 4 hard working teenagers I would need to start training now so that they would already be hard working by the time they are teenagers.
If you read my blog last year you might remember that last summer was the summer of chores. I really took the time and t aught my kids how to do chores and they did awesome. They can all clean a bathroom, sweep a kitchen, vacuum a room, and almost any other thing. It rocks. This summer I decided to focus on some individual training and specifically cooking for the older boys. We had a family council at the beginning of the summer and made lists of things that either the kids wanted to learn to do or Jason and I thought they were ready to do. We also "filled in some gaps" that we noticed some of the kids had. Here is our list:
Brock
Make cookies
alone
Make a cake
Use a knife
Make a salad
Floss teeth
Braid
Grocery shop
Noah
Tie a bow
Floss teeth
make Mac and
cheese
Make french
toast
Braid
Pump up bike
tire
Rent red
box/return red box
Megan
Tie a bow
Throw a ball
Weed
Address
Put hair in
pony tail
braid
Madison
Clean
Bathroom
Empty
Dishwasher
Tie a bow
Throw a ball
Take a
shower
Phone number
and address
All in all we did ok. There were a few that got started but not quite mastered and some things that got mastered perfectly. I didn't take pictures of everything - I SHOULD have taken pictures of Noah making mac and cheese - he became an expert at that and loves to make it for everyone for lunch whenever he can. He can do it completely by himself - I don't even need to be in the kitchen.
Here he is with his french toast.
Brock's first batch of ALL ALONE cookies.
I took this picture becasue it represents me and the way I mother. I trimmed all the low hanging branches on the tree becasue it needed it. But they still wanted one to swing on. So I left one. It looks horrible and out of places and just begging to be cut - But I left it for my kids to swing on becasue they are more important in THIS stage right now than a tree and this awkward branch reminds me of that.
No comments:
Post a Comment