Train em' Young

I found a great article on chores with children in a magazine I had stashed down in the basement (it's amazing what a flood makes you go through!). It had some great pointers, like initially doing chores together, setting clear expectations, starting early, and being realistic.

Check and check. At least on the starting early and doing it together. Jackson LOVES chores. Pretty much Jackson loves attention, and if chores gets him attention he figures that's great! We'll have to work more on the independent completion of chores, but enthusiastic workers are almost always welcome.

Vacuuming is by far the favorite. Thankfully our vacuum actually sucks when the handle is 2 feet from the ground. He's pretty slow, but gets a part of the job done.

I doubt the thrill of helping Dad with anything will ever leave. Ikea could make their assembly a bit more kid friendly, but since that would likely drive up cost--we probably wouldn't buy it anyway. So he'll have to be satisfied with holding boards and handing over screws until he's a bit older.

Raking leaves is usually fun (as long as they're not wet). Jackson's a little bit better with a broom than a rake, but hey! He's probably about as effective as he'll be as a middle schooler.

I was mostly excited when he discovered the crunching sound the leaves made after all the hard work. (View that video here.)

Baking is probably his 2nd favorite thing to do. If he sees me pull out the measuring cups he'll get really excited and sit down in the middle of the kitchen floor expecting me to bring the bowl down to his height so he can pour the contents in. This picture was one of the luckier days I let him sit up on our ginormous stove to help out with pizza dough.

Stove top cooking is one thing he would love to help with, especially since I always seem to do it right when he desires full attention. Unfortunately, child safety standards are so high in this country, he doesn't get to help much. SO, we picked up this cute little thing (yay for east coast sidewalk charity), and plopped it in the middle of our living room.

Mark willfully agreed to it, but did remind me that we had a little boy. Thankfully the whole family has enjoyed it. Jackson gets a thrill out of cooking something for us to taste, but doesn't feel it's a good enough substitute for our special kitchen time at night. So it hasn't really helped the dinner situation, but it sure is funny when he smacks his lips after trying something he's cooked up, or brings over the spatula for us to taste his creative genius. Can't wait for this to be translated into real food. I'm shooting for age 10.

Jackson is also very good at unsetting the table and pulling all the clean silverware out of the holder. We'll be working on the reversal of those two in the next few weeks. Mark is also seriously considering dishes training--to help reduce the nightly burden. I have no doubt Jackson would love the training--not so sure of the efficacy. But hey. Train em' young.