Summer Skills Report
Well, my plans to teach my kids some new skills during summer break are winding down. School starts in just a couple more days, and I am letting them off the hook a bit when it comes to some of the summer chores. So how did it go?
M and J are now reasonably competent when it comes to cleaning the bathroom without any help. B does very well if I am there to help. It was good practice to make sure that they each had a turn to completely clean the bathroom once a week. Now that school starts I'm going to cut it back to once a week bathroom cleaning. Each week they will rotate whose turn it is to clean the bathroom on Saturday. The crazy thing was that even with their bathroom getting fully cleaned three times a week, it was still disgusting every time it got cleaned. Every other day the bathroom (especially the sink & the toilet) would just be filthy. What on earth do they do in there???
The cooking didn't go nearly so well, only because I just didn't fit it into the schedule as often. So often I was just throwing together a meal in a short period of time, and the last thing I wanted was a "helper." Still, I think they learned a little. At least, I hope J learned that you have to spray the muffin tins before making muffins (after two times of having to dig his muffins out of the pans)!
Washing dishes was the most successful. All of them can pretty much do the dishes on their own (though B sometimes needs help with the big pans). However, none of them cooperated much. It was pulling teeth every single time.
Several times one of them put off this chore the whole day hoping to run out of time (which they did). Somehow they thought it would get them out of the chore. Never worked though; then they just had to do the dishes the next morning. They always acted like I was so unreasonable about it!
The most unexpected part of this whole business was the sudden increase of cleaning supplies we needed. I kid you not, the amount of dishwashing liquid and dishwasher soap we used doubled, and we went from needing one can of Ajax cleanser every four months or so to needing one every week. Not too mention how many Clorox wipes we went through! For a family living on a tight grocery budget this extra cleaning by kids was a significant cost, one that I hadn't planned for at all. But at least now I know: Kids + Frequent Cleaning = Stock Needed In Cleaning Supply Companies!!
M and J are now reasonably competent when it comes to cleaning the bathroom without any help. B does very well if I am there to help. It was good practice to make sure that they each had a turn to completely clean the bathroom once a week. Now that school starts I'm going to cut it back to once a week bathroom cleaning. Each week they will rotate whose turn it is to clean the bathroom on Saturday. The crazy thing was that even with their bathroom getting fully cleaned three times a week, it was still disgusting every time it got cleaned. Every other day the bathroom (especially the sink & the toilet) would just be filthy. What on earth do they do in there???
The cooking didn't go nearly so well, only because I just didn't fit it into the schedule as often. So often I was just throwing together a meal in a short period of time, and the last thing I wanted was a "helper." Still, I think they learned a little. At least, I hope J learned that you have to spray the muffin tins before making muffins (after two times of having to dig his muffins out of the pans)!
Washing dishes was the most successful. All of them can pretty much do the dishes on their own (though B sometimes needs help with the big pans). However, none of them cooperated much. It was pulling teeth every single time.
 |
| J sloshing his way through the dishes |
The most unexpected part of this whole business was the sudden increase of cleaning supplies we needed. I kid you not, the amount of dishwashing liquid and dishwasher soap we used doubled, and we went from needing one can of Ajax cleanser every four months or so to needing one every week. Not too mention how many Clorox wipes we went through! For a family living on a tight grocery budget this extra cleaning by kids was a significant cost, one that I hadn't planned for at all. But at least now I know: Kids + Frequent Cleaning = Stock Needed In Cleaning Supply Companies!!
Comments