Both Noah and Mattias cried about today being the last day of school. I think that's a testimony to what great teachers they had this year. Both of their teachers are looping – i.e. teaching (mostly) the same kids at the next grade level – next year. We're absolutely thrilled about this. It helps, of course, that both teachers seem to be such a good fit for the kiddo. Their tears about the end of the year did give me a nice dose of insecurity about my own mothering. Aren't they suppose to be excited about the summer? Maybe I'm not looking like very much fun these days. Hmm. Maybe I need to stop talking about our cleaning routine.
Friday, June 6, 2014
Clean up
Thank you for all your cleaning-with-kids tips! I'm totally inspired to do much better this summer with our cleaning routine. This weekend we have some Major Cleaning to do because Oma arrives for a two week stay on Monday! I'll try to keep you posted on our cleaning challenge as it progresses. But not too much because that could be really boring, right?
[photo of The Cleanliness Saboteur]
Both Noah and Mattias cried about today being the last day of school. I think that's a testimony to what great teachers they had this year. Both of their teachers are looping – i.e. teaching (mostly) the same kids at the next grade level – next year. We're absolutely thrilled about this. It helps, of course, that both teachers seem to be such a good fit for the kiddo. Their tears about the end of the year did give me a nice dose of insecurity about my own mothering. Aren't they suppose to be excited about the summer? Maybe I'm not looking like very much fun these days. Hmm. Maybe I need to stop talking about our cleaning routine.
Both Noah and Mattias cried about today being the last day of school. I think that's a testimony to what great teachers they had this year. Both of their teachers are looping – i.e. teaching (mostly) the same kids at the next grade level – next year. We're absolutely thrilled about this. It helps, of course, that both teachers seem to be such a good fit for the kiddo. Their tears about the end of the year did give me a nice dose of insecurity about my own mothering. Aren't they suppose to be excited about the summer? Maybe I'm not looking like very much fun these days. Hmm. Maybe I need to stop talking about our cleaning routine.
Monday, June 2, 2014
Summer Vacation Order
Hi there!
Summer vacation is almost here and I'm nervous.
So...I have a question: do you have a method for keeping your house orderly when your children are home all day (as in, during the summer or on the weekends)?
We currently have no method. Sometimes we do an evening cleaning. Sometimes we clean all weekend. It's spotty and ill-enforced. It can depend on the day, how much we are home/in the house, and who is (or is not) actually available to do the cleaning. Consequently the house spends a lot of time in messy chaos when all the children are home.
I think it would be highly advisable to have some a plan or set expectations for my sanity this summer! But what? Chore charts? Set times to clean up? Rules to restrict play to certain items? (Actually, there's no way that last one is going to work in our house....)
I am also interested in some tangental things like:
[photo removed]
So...I have a question: do you have a method for keeping your house orderly when your children are home all day (as in, during the summer or on the weekends)?
We currently have no method. Sometimes we do an evening cleaning. Sometimes we clean all weekend. It's spotty and ill-enforced. It can depend on the day, how much we are home/in the house, and who is (or is not) actually available to do the cleaning. Consequently the house spends a lot of time in messy chaos when all the children are home.
I think it would be highly advisable to have some a plan or set expectations for my sanity this summer! But what? Chore charts? Set times to clean up? Rules to restrict play to certain items? (Actually, there's no way that last one is going to work in our house....)
I am also interested in some tangental things like:
- What are non-cleaning children (like a one-year-old) doing while the older ones are cleaning?
- What is a reasonable expectation of cleanliness?
- How about a reasonable expectation of frequency or time spent cleaning? (Since Noah is 7 and Mattias is 4, I guess expectation in line with their ages would be good...)
- How much supervising/helping do you do?
Seems like I should know this stuff after 7 years, but I still haven't figured it out.
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Plugged
It felt great to be working on a project as a family. Well, Trixie wasn't much help.
But Noah and Mattias actually helped quite a bit. Collecting dirt plugs, spraying water, and packing dirt is pretty much exactly what they like to do when they play in the yard anyway; so it worked well. They spent hours knocking the dirt off the roots of the grass and sorting into separate containers. I was impressed. If only every project channeled their creative play so well.
Planting the dogtooth grass plugs
Why we planted the grass (a dialog)
The African dogtooth grass experiment begins in May
The African dogtooth grass at 4 months in August
The additional bulb flower experiment
Where the bulbs get eaten by the rabbits
Fifteen months after planting
Two years in when the Japanese Beetle grub arrive
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