Cleaning: My Top 5 Ways to Get Kids to Clean

The majority of the time there is weeping and wailing when it comes to this, but once we're into it, things usually settle down.  We battle this one all the time, but that is the key - you keep battling. When a job is easier to do yourself that is when you most need to exert the effort in getting your children to pitch in.  Here's my attempt at quelling the rebellion. 

Top 5 list in descending order:  

           5.  Give fair warning (a couple days ahead for big jobs). We also make it known that working  
                isn't optional in our family. Their choice involves their attitude, not their participation.
           4.  Funky cleaning tools of their invention or choice (striped, fuzzy socks for dusting, childhood 
                toothbrushes for scrubbing)   
           3.  Music – we crank up my kid's playlist they created especially for cleaning.   
           2.  Praise & reward their specific skill sets. You may call it bribery, I call it motivation. Work 
                first, play second. 
           1.  Work along side them.  It's more than your example, it is your cooperation that they crave.

Organizing: Intentional living and my summer plan compulsion.

Every year as the end of the school year approaches and summer is on everyone's mind, I sit down with the kids and come up with a summer plan. Yes, I know that sounds a bit compulsive, but here is my reasoning. To me, summer is precious time I get for just a couple months out of the year to spend most of the day with my kids. To me, that screams teaching opportunity. If I don't make some actual plans to do the 'good idea' stuff we talk about, summer has a way of slipping away to quickly, and it might be another year before we have the time to revisit our 'good idea' plans. 

It may seem like an over-scheduling of what many consider to be the lazy season of the year. To each their own I suppose, but in the real world, few people have a couple months each year to lounge about. And if my main job is to teach my kids how to get along without me, then I consider teaching them how to use free and leisure time a part of that responsibility. Yes, I add in a couple sleep-late, do nothing days into the schedule occasionally. I don't apply our list to a hard calendar, but rather take a look at the coming week and see what things we can check off our summer list in between swimming lessons and scout camps. By the end of the summer we usually have everything crossed off, and hopefully a lot of fun memories and new skills in the process.

Our Summer list has about 30 things that fall into 6 categories:

• Chores
• Homemaking Days
• Projects
• Parties
• Places
• Just for Fun

So – what fun plans to you make with your kids to take advantage of summer?

Cooking: Asian Pie – intuitive cooking (recipe-less)

The other night it was my boy's turn to cook. He had put off cooking dinner until 6 pm, so we were eating his quick-go-to meal of BLTs. As my husband and I were talking about how it would be nice if the kids would branch out more in their dinner menus, my son blurted out, “I want to make an Asian Shepherd's Pie for dinner sometime.” So we talked about what he had envisioned and how to go about creating this less-than-traditional dish. I thought this would be a great way for him to work on the skill of cooking without a recipe.  You'll note there are no measurements listed.  That is the beauty of 'winging-it' or intuitive cooking - you can tailor the amounts and ingredients to fit what you have, what you like, and how many you need to feed.  This is what he came up with:

• Rice (brown, white, leftover, whatever - just make sure it is cooked)
• Chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces. Saute this with a little ground ginger, salt and pepper
• Stir fry sauce of your choice (sweet and sour, general tso, orange, etc)
• Lightly steamed vegetables (we used broccoli, carrots, mushrooms and scallions)

                                             Spread a layer of cooked rice in a casserole dish.

                                            Add sauteed chicken, and stir-fry sauce.

Next, layer on the veggies. We lightly steamed some fresh ones we had on hand, leftovers or frozen would work well also.  

Top with another layer of cooked rice, and bake at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until heated through.

 This was the end result.  Sort of a one-dish stir-fry meal.  It is a great way to use leftover Asian-style ingredients.  I really liked the slightly crusty rice on top.  

I do like to have my children learn to cook from recipes, but I don't want them to be bound by them.  Encouraging them to add their own ingredients to soups, or salads is an easy way to encourage their creativity and confidence in cooking intuitively.  My son loves to make soups without using recipes, and my daughter loves to experiment with fruit salad.  So once in a while - let them wing it.  After all, I think that fear is one of the biggest factors that keeps people out of the kitchen.  So Carpe Culina!  (Seize the Kitchen)   

Cooking: My Dietitian Soap-Box Speech

It has been reported (Huffington Post 09/09/11) that almost 1/3 of Americans don't know how to cook. Also, a survey from over a decade ago reported that over half of American knew less than their parents about cooking. In the intervening years, I'm afraid that that number may not have made a drastic turnaround. This is ridiculous!!! If you can read, you can cook. And even if you can't read, you can still learn intuitive (recipe-free) cooking. No wonder America's 'biggest' health problems stem back to obesity. Teach your kiddos to cook and save not only your health and theirs, but that of an entire generation.  *steps down from soap-box*

5 things to teach your kids how to cook & why:

• Creative or fun salads - Few of us get enough fruits or veggies
• Kid-friendly foods - They need alternatives to nutrient-poor, pre-packaged foods
• Whole grain dishes- 3-5 servings or more per day is the recommendation but probably not the reality.
• Slow-cooker meals -  If you don't have time to cook after work, will they?
• Bread  - Pizza, rolls, cinnamon twists, plain old comforting warm slices . . . need I say more about the versatility of a reliable bread dough recipe? 

So instead of pinning all those recipes to my virtual board, I'd best be making them with my actual children!

Gardening: Weeding Assignments - Divide and Conquer

My Dad was a farmer and as a kids we always had the largest garden in the neighborhood. This basically meant that we slaved away doing yard/garden work exponentially more than any of our friends – or so it seemed. I remember cursing weeding and working in the yard, swearing that I'd never do it as an adult. Luckily this declaration, as most others made in childhood, proved erroneous. Now I love gardening and find it very therapeutic, although I'm far from a masterful green-thumb.  So, following the natural cycle of things, I perpetuate the same wonderful (or torturous) work opportunities for my kids. When it comes to gardening, that means Weeding Assignments. Man, those two words were possibly the most dreaded of my childhood. Each child was assigned a section of the yard and garden to weed.  So here's a quick glance at what I inflict on my kids each year.

Weeding Assignment Responsibilities:

Spring:

• Help with any planting in your assigned area
• Understand which are plants in your area and which are weeds. (Knowing plant names would be great, but I'm not that unrealistic)

Summer: 

• Area must be weeded and checked by a parent every 2 weeks (1 week when I was a kid, so yeah, I'm a softy).
• Area must be dead-headed every 1-2 weeks.

Fall: 

• Clear out annuals and cut back perennials.

Yes, this means a bit of grief when it comes to enforcing, but that is the whole point of parenthood. Of course it would be easier to do it yourself, but then the next generation would be botanically clueless, and you don't want your grandchildren raised in that kind of yard do you? *grins*