Well-done work has its own reward

The title of this post is from Proberbs 12:14 which I read in my quiet time this morning.

John is really good at delegation. He'll look around and see what needs to be done and what the kids are capable of doing and assign them tasks. I don't delegate. I try to do it all on my own. My mom always did everything for me and I should do everything for my family. But finally, I had to admit, I wasn't doing it all and I needed help. So I told the kids they had to help with cleaning the kitchen in the evenings. Nobody really has an assigned task, we just all work together on whatever needs to be done.

And it has been really fun. More than one of the kids has told me how much fun it is and how much they like to clean the kitchen together. Who knew? I have read articles and seen the examples in other families of the value of chores for kids for developing responsibility and for teaching stewardship and preparing for independence and blah, blah, blah. But really, that's not why I've made them help. It is simply because I am not able to do it all, even though I wish I could. And God has blessed us through that.

This is also from the Proverbs I read this morning:

The diligent find freedom in their work;
the lazy are oppressed by work. Proverbs 12:24 (The Message)

Whee!!

In case you can't tell, this is a roller coaster. Going around a bumpy curve:

Down the big hill:

Is imagination a sign of intelligence? Or is it just evidence of too much play time and not enough work? Or worse, is it an indication of poor housekeeping skills (since the white changing pad and the car seat have been sitting in our living room since last Friday)? Um, I don't think I'll answer that one.

PSA

This is a public service announcement. S'mores are an outside food.

This evidence was times 8 (we had 2 kids joining us for dinner).

But s'mores make kids happy!

Just a Spoonful of Sugar

Friday night we watched Mary Poppins. One of the favorite songs among the kids is, of course, Spoonful of Sugar. So that was fresh in my mind yesterday.

"In ev'ry job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job's a game."
♪♫♪ Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, the medicine go down... the medicine go down in the most delightful way. ♪♫♪

Here was the medicine:

Here was the sugar:

Preschool ADD

So, David was supposed to be getting ready for bed. This is what I found when I went to check on him.

The Unrestrained Honesty of Kids

Kids are good for humility.



John is the worship leader at our church. There is another girl who sings backup with him most weeks. Unfortunately, last week she was not feeling well. She called John to say that she wouldn't be able to sing Sunday morning. After John hung up, Joseph asked who was on the phone and John relayed the message. Joseph looked downcast and said "Ah man. It always sounds better when she sings." Sorry honey. I like your singing.



Yesterday I came by the computer to check the email. I didn't plan on spending any time at the computer, just wanted to make a quick check, so I didn't actually sit down. Apparently I looked funny the way I leaned on the chair. The kids who saw me started laughing and said I looked like a chicken. Because I wasn't really laughing (would you?), they decided to demonstrate. Tina perched on the chair like I had been and then said, "But it doesn't really look the same, because I don't have a big bottom." Nice.

Playing and Learning

I read an article before Christmas in Better Homes and Gardens and pulled out this quote:

"But we also need to make room for unstructured time, and for toys- like building blocks and modeling clay-that can be played with in a lot of different ways." The need for this kind of creative play is crucial. In developmental studies of schoolchildren over the past 20 years, researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, found that kids who got more time for this kind of play were able to use their creativity in other areas of their lives as they grew up. In particular, research showed a strong link between creative play and the development of effective problem-solving and coping skills, which will serve children well for the rest of their lives.

Study or not, I have thought for a while that many kids today don't have enough time to just play and be kids. I never really have bought into the idea that kids need to spend more time in school or more time in activities.

Our homeschool bears this out. In the early years we do the regular stuff, like reading out loud, letters, numbers, shapes, colors. But those years are also more relaxed with lots of time to play.

This is my favorite, recent example of what kinds of things they do during this play time. This is Samuel's movie theater built from Duplo blocks. You are looking from the back up toward the front at the screen.


This is looking from the front of the theater to the seats. You'll see 2 alligators there in the front row. A red gemstone and a frog in the middle row and a little monkey in the back.

This is the projection booth run by a lizard whose tail you can see. As far as I know Sam has been to 2 movies at the theater in his life, so I can't believe he thought to make a projection booth, but John says it's the engineer in Sam that brought it to mind.

After I took these pictures Sam kept building with his blocks. "What are you making now?" I asked him. "I have to make the potty," he replied clearly astonished that I could forget something so important. That is perfect Sam. He really gets a kick out of all things potty. I'm afraid to imagine how that sort of play "will serve him well the rest of his life".