exhibit A...the back porch of my childhood home. sigh....
Out here in California, however, autumn takes its time, meandering through the months generally inhabited by hats, mittens and puffy coats and snow angels in my memory. Snow isn't going to happen at all, I've made peace with that (unless we get in our car and trek 4 hours to the Sierras, which we will. Some day.) But even the changing of the trees from their lush green to the crispy reds, oranges and yellows--their own little fiery tree sunsets---lingers through to December.
This picture was taken during the 2nd week of December...
Not exactly a winter wonderland. But, I have to say, the change in the leaves provides us wiht hours of entertainment, even if we have to wait until two weeks before the Winter Solstice to partake in our autumnal activities......like raking (or, let's be honest--pretending to rake while actually spreading the leaves around even more haphazardly and poking at them with the wrong end of the rake....)
wrong way, kid....
theeeeere you go....keep up the good work. Mama's going to go sit on the porch and supervise...
We also went on the super fun & fabulous preschool-mandatory leaf collecting walk. Outfitted with a random Starbucks bag, once home to perhaps a delectable baked goodie, we headed out to collect decaying refuse from our neighborhood trees. (SO PRETTTTTTY!) and gathered up the brightest leaves we could find to take home with us.....for no purpose whatsoever....
But who cares?!!! Carpe Diem! Or, Carpe A Bunch of Dying Leaves!
When we returned from our leaf collecting journey around the block, I deflected the fact that those lovingly selected leaves were basically going to be chucked into "yard waste" trash bin on the side of our house within minutes, by suggesting we rake for a few more minutes before the sun went down....
I'm not sure if he's raking here, or practicing being a majorette...
not getting a lot of raking done here....
Pretty sure he is playing guitar here instead of pulling his own weight in household chores. Seriously---four year olds, who do they think they are?
So, dear reader, help me out.
1.) What the hell can I do with a bunch of fallen leaves that is artsy/craftsy funsy/learny with a 4 year old? and...
2.) At what age do you think chores, with or without an allowance, are reasonable for kids? Raking was definitely not Ethan's chore--he thought it was great fun and did it pretty much on his own (and with, let's be honest, very little actual leaf-raking success--but he totally nailed it on the "being cute" part, so it's all good). But as Ethan gets older & more able to help out around the house and be in charge of his own things, I'm curious about the concept of chores & allowance and what other people do with their kids. Thanks!
4 comments:
We're still in the "we all help because we are a family" phase and the kids are responsible for putting their clothes in the laundry heap after a bath and clearing their place at the table after meals and snacks. Charlie still thinks money is fun to play with at this point, so we're not giving him an allowance. I have no idea what to do with leaves except iron them between sheets of wax paper and hang them in the window. We did that in elementary school. Fun reason to go for a walk, though!
We're still in the "we all help because we are a family" phase and the kids are responsible for putting their clothes in the laundry heap after a bath and clearing their place at the table after meals and snacks. Charlie still thinks money is fun to play with at this point, so we're not giving him an allowance. I have no idea what to do with leaves except iron them between sheets of wax paper and hang them in the window. We did that in elementary school. Fun reason to go for a walk, though!
such a cutie. hmmmm, leaves projects... i can't exactly say we've done any. putting them under paper and rubbing crayons over them? isn't that one? or i remember we used to get wax paper and iron them in between sheets of wax paper and then hang them up by the windows.
we tried with allowance but then they ended up buying like 10,000 littlest pet shops and i couldn't take it anymore. i've heard of some people who have their kids give x% to savings, x% to charity and keep x% of their allowance for fun now, but i am not that organized. perhaps that's why i have yet to do a leaves project with them ;)
there have been no real talks of chores at our house (and definitely no mention of allowance), but as the kids get older I do expect them to do more. Izzy now has to clean up her room all by herself, while Jack might just be expected to help me clean his. We are working on getting them to bring their own dishes to the kitchen after dinner. And I've been trying to get them to help more with cleaning up the playroom, although, sometimes I'd rather just do it myself so it's done right.
These efforts seem very lame after reading this comment. I'm going to have to crack down!
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