Category Archives: training children

Culinary Arts

Posted on by
I don’t know how many time I have sat at a wedding shower and the bride-to-be has said “I totally don’t know how to cook!”

Everybody twitters in laughter and then you hear comments like:

“Rice-a-Roni is really easy….”
“As long as you can ready the back of a box you will be fine…..”
“We lived on Macaroni and Cheese the first year we were married, it was all my husband could cook!….”
“Memorise Domino’s number……”

Inside I am a little horrified.

It use to be that a young lady would never have married without knowing to to cook, much less bragg about it. Being a good competent cook was something to be proud of! I wonder if we focus too much on educating our daughters on the things of the world and forget to teach them to be heart of their homes. Not that book learning is a bad thing, it isn’t, women should be intelligent and well learned, but it isn’t everything.

“That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children. To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.” (Titus 2:4-5)

As part of my oldest daughter’s homeschool I have added what I like to call “life skills”. She is learning how to cook! I have also included her younger sister in this project for the summertime and they are both really enjoying the process.

 

There are three categories: Meals, Breakfast and Desserts, they get to pick 5 different items in each categories. They each take turns cooking and marking off what they have done. Once each item has been cooked 5 timed I will sign it off. We will then invite a special guest of their choice for dinner, which they will prepare all by themselves with no help from me. The girls are so excited, they are already starting to talk about who they want to invite.

 

“She ariseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.” (Proverbs 31:15)

Bits

Posted on by
Nothing particularly interesting has been going on around these parts.
We have been happily going about the business of the day.

I thought I would share some photos I took today.

This is my little man, he is 2 1/2

I can’t believe how big he is.
Unlike a lot of people I enjoy 2 year olds, I think they are the funniest things on the plant,
and they still love their mama’s.
While I am doing school with his big sister, he likes to feel a part of the action.

Today he got his own white board, and I let him use a marker, it was a big day for punk#5!


This is my oldest.
This is my homeschool child.
This is the girl who hated to read.
This is the girl who couldn’t and wouldn’t read.
This is the girl who would cry and cry during reading time,

and this is the sweet reward for the many weeks of teaching her to love reading.

The rewards of motherhood are simple, but very sweet.
(see the doll on her chest, she loves babies and baby dolls, I love that she is able to enjoy her imagination. She wanted to know if I use to read like that when she was a little baby, and you know what? I did!)

She is a Thinker

Posted on by

My 9 year old is becoming quite the thinker.

Friday is my cleaning day, usually punk #1 has a hard time getting her jobs done. Friday she did really well, stayed on task and worked quickly.

After she was done she said “Mom I know why it is important for kids to clean.”

“Why,” I asked

“So when the kids grow up and have houses of their own to keep clean we will have developed good cleaning strategies.”

****

A few days ago she said to Dadzoo

“Life is a test, and repentance is like correcting the mistakes we make on our test.”

“Yes, that is exactly right,” Dadzoo said.

Then she said “Isn’t that nice of Heavenly Father to let us do that.”

Yes, it sure it

That is my 9 year old,

The Thinker.

Summer

Posted on by

Now that the kids are back in school I have been reflecting on this past summer. I seems to, in my mind, be divided into two distinct time periods. There is the “before the vacation” and “after the vacation”.
Before the vacation was from June until about mid July. It was wonderful. The kids were relatively well behaved, the house was kept relatively clean, chores and school work were done by 11:00 and the afternoon was free time. I really felt like I had it all together.
After the vacation was a different story. We were lazy, very unproductive, the house was messy and nobody cracked open a book. The kids were irritable and I was down right ornery. Nothing seemed to work, the days were long, tiring and tedious.

I have been mulling this over the last couple of weeks, wondering what changed. Were we just getting bored? Were we craving the structure that school created?….Structure….

…Sturcture….ah-ha

The first part of the summer I had a daily schedule. We were up at 7 and there was a plan for the morning, it included chores and some school work. Everyone (including me) knew each day what was expected. The afternoon were free times where the kids could do pretty much as they pleased (within reason). They played in the wading pool, with the bunnies, with friends. Sometime they watched movies or played on the computer. I taught them how to stitch and garden, we picked sweet peas and made daisy chains.


After the vacation it all fell apart. Part of the problem is that I can home really sick and it took me a good week of rest to get feeling better (ha, as much rest as you can get with 5 little ones around). I stopped making up a schedule for the day, there was no structure. The kids didn’t know what was expected, I would just give orders as I thought of them, it would be noon and the house wasn’t picked up and the breakfast dishes still on the table. They weren’t dressed and had been sitting in front of cartoons all morning. Everybody was bored, tired and irritable.

Conclusion: I am a better mother /homemaker /wife /person when I have a schedule. It keeps me on track, I am notorious for being easily distracted. I also think it helps the kids to know what to expect and what is coming next. When I do a schedule it is very detailed, sometimes down 10 minute increments of time. Also, I think that it is a good thing for everyone to have unscheduled time.

Now that the school year has started I have started up my scheduling again. So far (I know I am only a week and a half into it, but you have to start somewhere right) everyday the kids have gotten off to school on time and un-rushed. Beds have been made, house picked up and animals taken care of. I am optimistic that this will be a good foundation for a good year. I have started to schedule the evening too (after school is free time, the kids need a good couple of hours of hard-core play time!) and so far it is working, kids are to bed on time (for the most part, punk #1 is exerting some independence on this point) dishes done, homework finished and house picked up. I has worked so well so far that I pray it will continue, it makes such a difference in our home as was illustrated to me this summer.

Old Fashioned Education, Old Fashioned Life

Posted on by
Anyone who knows me well knows how I feel about the education of my daughters. I think that in general the art of homemaking is becoming lost. Lost in all the hustle and bustle of life, lost in the world’s idea of an ideal woman, lost to the rat race. I am making an effort to make sure my daughters are educated two fold. I want them to have all the book knowledge they can, but at the same time understanding that book smarts aren’t everything. I want my daughters to be skilled in the art of making a home, with all the little things that go into that.

I think that it is really sad that domestic arts are lost. How many people still garden and can? Sew? Cook? I am sort of a dreamer and I dream about a slower time, where life was simpler, where woman quilted together, instead of waving at each other as they drove by each other, running to the next appointment or class. I dream of late nights on a front porch talking instead of everybody in their own house watching American Idol. Of kids riding bikes and running through sprinklers, instead of being carted off to the next class or lesson.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to ramble, but I want to illustrate how important the small and simple things are. This summer we are cutting back, way back, not only with our finances, but with our commitments. I am working very hard at making simple small memories. When my girls are old and they are remembering their childhood are they going to have fond memories of two weeks of grueling dance camp, or are they going to remember making daisy chains and having picnics? Are they going to remember going to the latest and greatest water parks, or are they going to remember the afternoon spent with our feet in the cold wading pool because the power was out and we were without air conditioning? Are they going to remember the Children’s Museum or are they going to remember planting and harvesting their own veggie patch?

Not that those activities aren’t good and fun, I think sometimes we get caught up in the idea that thing have to be dazzling and amazing for our kids to have wonderful memories. That isn’t true, sometimes the simplest things make the greatest impact. When you are quietly chatting with your 4 year old while she is using her fat finger to push bean seeds into the ground, that makes memories and builds relationships. Sitting in the cool house teaching your 8 year old how to embroider and she talks to you about what is going on in her head and how she feels about life, that is what establishes open communication. When the whole family is sitting with their feet in the cold water of the wading pool, because the power is out and the house is about 85 degrees, talking, and laughing, that is what binds families together.

(This is the napkin that Punk #2 is working on)

Wow, I really got off subject. I wanted to talk about teaching my girls some of the domestic arts. One of our projects this summer it to learn how to to stitchery. The three oldest have small projects. We are stitching around the hem of cloth napkins. One is loving it more that the other, and that is ok, at least they will have the basic skill down! It had been a fun project that we have all be enjoying together.