My childhood chores involved babysitting, folding laundry, doing dishes, baling hay, milking cows, and whatever else my parents needed.
We no longer milk cows. My kids are too small to bale hay (and we no longer square bale anything). Many of the jobs that were considered okay for my generation and generations previous are considered unsafe for children to do today.
The thing that is most unnerving to me is not that chores are unsafe, but rather the fact that we are raising future citizens who don’t know how to fold their own shirts.
Recently, I overheard two women talking about their teenage children. They were 
discussing the fact that they don’t let their kids do the laundry. The reasoning for this was that they didn’t have the patience to teach their children how to use the washing machine and that the kids never folded the clothes the way they (the moms) like it.
Okay?!?
If we don’t demonstrate patience for our children, how will they know what the skill of being patient looks like? If we don’t teach them how to use the washing machine, who will? Some nice lady at the laundry mat?
Secondly, how can our children improve their skills, in things like laundry folding, if we don’t guide them? I don’t mind if my shirts are a bit sloppy when folded, at least somebody folded them.
Another time a mom told me she didn’t know how I had the patience to let my kids cook with me. “They are so messy, and I am already tired when I get home. I don’t want them underfoot when I am trying to get dinner on the table,” was what she told me.
Cooking is messy. Learning is messy. Kids are messy. The cool thing about cooking 
with my kids is that they are learning. They learn how to make food. They learn how to clean up. They learn how to work as a team preparing, making, and serving our meals. Plus, my time with them is so precious in the evenings; it is nice to be able to do something productive.
I am not gonna lie. We don’t cook together every night. I don’t let my kids put the clothes away all the time. Sometimes I am too tired to be patient with them and sometimes they are too tired to work with me. But we still try most of the time. Continue reading “Childhood Chores”
they each created a unique and whimsical fairy garden. The garden of each child was an terrific representation of their personalities.
Can you relate?
I need my students to know that they are my priority. It needs to be clear that the lesson at hand is the focus. Yes, our objective is to have another year under our belts, but we don’t have to wish our year away.
Can you see my conundrum? Which of these slips of paper was the “really special one” in the eyes of my six year old?
Do not allow the media to desensitize you.
Do not allow yourself to think you are above the law or regulations established for the protection of our communities.
Intentergy 