Kids in the Kitchen

We are pretty big on kid independence in our house and one area that the kids love practicing this is in the kitchen - helping with cooking and baking. So, the kids get invited to join regularly and I never, ever lack for a kid who wants to help cook- it's more like too many of them want to help and I have to divide the steps four ways so everyone gets a turn at something.

Depending on their ages/abilities, it is easy to add kid help to anything I am making for any meal. Being a total nerd about education - it's such a joy for me to watch how much they are learning about so many different things while we cook/bake together. Grey learned about how important it is to measure when adding salt to food when he made a super-salty egg sausage casserole that made his Dad's face squish up (hah! still a favorite memory story around here!)

We practice counting cups, reading recipes, even fractions! We learn about time - why does it take so long for the cookies to bake?! - we learn about not wasting food, and how much better things taste when we use fresh food (from our own garden, or chickens, or the farmer's market!)



It's not perfect by any means - we've had plenty of burned fingers from the stove or oven, enormous flour explosions when the electric mixer gets too speedy, had to pick egg shells out of a mix. And it can certainly be frustrating for me because when I have a house full of hungry kids and a piled up with dishes kitchen - ain't no momma got time for little hands sticking their fingers in my cookie batter (hah!) But like most things when it comes to raising up future people - you have to smile through the patience and focus on the learning. They're never going to learn to do it for themselves if you don't show them and then let them do it (no matter how long or how much of a mess it makes the first couple tries).

Here is how the helping in the kitchen shakes out for us currently and through the last year. Even writing this list out has me motivated to keep teaching the kids new skills (Grey - mac & cheese solo, Gem - grilled cheese sandwiches solo). It's always evolving and figuring out what works best for each kid and age.

Ages 2-3 (Rusty)

• can stir mixes with a utensil- frequent reminders that "we keep one hand on the bowl to hold it steady, and the other hand stirs the spatula"
• can add pre-measured ingredients to a bowl
• can get supplies out that we will need (peanut butter, chocolate chips, etc)
• can do one by one things: put cupcake liners in cupcake tin, add blueberries as toppings to each iced cupcake, etc
• always up to taste test and lick the spoon!

Ages 4-5 (Violet)

• can crack eggs into a bowl
• can use an electric hand mixer
• can count correct cups (I can give her the correct size measuring tool and the item she is adding and tell her, "you need 3 of these")
• can use cookie cutters without assistance
• can use a butter knife to spread toppings (butter/jelly - although peanut butter is a hard one to get right - even our 9 yr old still struggles adding peanut butter to toast!)
• can pick ripe vegetables from the garden (knows the difference between still growing and ripe)
• can make toast/waffles/toaster strudel & take it out of the toaster safely

 Ages 7-8 (Gemma)

• can cook eggs on a stove (scrambled)
• can brown ground meat in a skillet
• can use a sharp knife to cut up vegetables
• can pour own drinks/cereal (without a huge mess)
• can ice a cake/cupcakes 
• can add sprinkles (without a huge mess)
• can flip pancakes
• can 'fold' delicate things into a batter (like blueberries)
• can make her own sandwiches (lunchmeat, pb&j)
• can shuck corn (unassisted)
• can set the microwave time correctly (after a lot of supervision and one incident of a melted bowl and a smoke filled kitchen)

Ages 8-9 (Grey)

• can follow a handwritten recipe after we go over it together
• can read & understand the packaging for baking instructions (oven temp and length of cooking)
• can put things in and out of the oven with mitts
• can cook on the stove (including turning it on/off, using the correct size burner, etc)
• can mix his own sauces: when he realized we had run out of buffalo ranch dressing, I told him that he just needs to get the right mixture of hot sauce and ranch dressing and he could make his own. He blew his own mind! 
• can start a fire in a fire ring (for campfire cooking)
• can steam things in a pan (breakfast sausage, vegetables)
• starting to learn how to grill simple things like hamburgers and hot dogs - highly supervised/assisted
• starting to learn about cooking clean up - that all the ingredients you use during cooking need to go back in the fridge/cupboard, it's easier to wipe the stove right away rather than let messes sit, soaking baked on pans, etc

Now if only we could get them to clean up after a meal as good as they cook/bake - that'd be a real miracle!

Summer survival

Summer vacation is here and we are all home together, making memories, and enjoying everyday to the fullest. Ugh, I wish it were that easy - amirite mommas? I do love summer and obviously my kiddos all home and wide open free days (especially the mornings) but there comes with it challenges as everyone is trying to get into a new schedule and everyone is starving all.the.time and everyone is bored all.the.time.

The summer stretches before us with wide open space and time which is blissfully exciting and a little unnerving with all these kids. So I came up with some ideas to keep us all (read: me) relatively sane and content as the summer rolls on. Here's some thoughts for other mommas and daddas out there wondering how to survive the summer (hah).

1. Food
Our kids can snack with the best of them and there are certain foods we can't even bring into the house and expect it to last more than an hour or two before it is devoured (read: toaster strudel or pringles) I knew that there was no way our kids could be successful on a 'no snacks' summer (only proper meals) but was honestly worried about them eating all of our food in the first week of summer. So I devised a daily Snack Option menu that is posted on our fridge. The kids can get their own snacks during the day, but it must only be the snacks listed for the day. They actually weirdly love the structure and having to see other snacks in the house but know they are saving them for another day. It is also nice that I can even include leftovers as part of the snacks and it keeps the fridge cleaned out and rotating. We have also been baking together, so those treats are listed on the snack menu too. Now if only to figure out a way to get them to put the wrappers in the garbage!?

2. Screens
If you're a regular reader, you know I'm all about the outdoor time over screen time. We have a tv in the living room and one in our bedroom (I lost that battle) and we have a firestick (netflix, prime, etc). So our kids definitely know and love the zombie'd out state of sitting in front of the tube. And the fight to switch from screens to something else is exhausting. To combat that awful tug-of-war, we've had a standing rule in our house (for about 3 years) that there are no screens before 11am. It's a hard rule that doesn't have exceptions, so the kids don't even ask anymore. There's something about them having to wake up and find something to do on their own that fuels their brains for the day. We usually don't turn on the tv until at least 2p and many times not even until dinner making so I can have a minute without someone hanging off of me. If we start the day without screens, they can make it so much longer without needing that distraction.

We also incorporate Screen Free Wednesdays in the summer and that applies to Mom and Dad too. Just a day in the middle of the week to unplug and be awake the whole day without distractions.

(our kids also have ipads, but they have been off the charger and with dead batteries since Screen Free Week and they haven't really noticed or cared - so they'll be staying that way until the new school year when they need them for studying).

3. Boredom
Without the distraction of screens (and even with screens) one of the most heard phrases in the house (second only to "I'm starving") is "I'm bored." My usual response to this is, "I have lots of chores you can do if you can't find something to do." hah.

We do keep a list of all the fun stuff we can do at home (similar to our screen free ideas list) that the kids can be reminded that there is actually plenty to do right here at home. The biggest mom issue I have to combat with this is the messes that working through boredom creates. The kids know they need to clean up after their mess, but also their version of 'cleaned up' isn't quite my version and it takes a lot to loosen my grip on perfection. I try very hard to meditate on the knowledge that ideas and play that is born out of boredom benefits their brain and expands their creativity. Just breathe, Momma.

4. Can we go somewhere? 
This is another common phrase from my kids all summer. We have time to visit new or favorite places with the wide open days during the summer so my kids get it in their head that we should be going somewhere every day. To keep the kids in check this summer, we made a "It's a good day to explore" jar. I took little strips of paper and wrote different spots that we can visit that are nearby without a lot of planning. They are so excited about pulling a paper out - hahha - they each have already done a 'practice pull.' I explained to them that we are only pulling out a paper if the day works for a trip - so we can't have a lot of other stuff going on (doctors appt, practices/games, graduation party, etc) AND it has to be a good day for ME (chores are caught up, no one is sick, etc) - which helps as a reminder that our chores will be caught up if everyone pitches in every day. Some of the things that are included in the jar: bikes/rollerblades in the school parking lot, hiking at a local trail/park, swimming at our grandparents', aunts', or cousins' houses, the local library, ice cream visits, mini golf, playground visits, quemahoming dam/beach, etc. 

photo cred: Gemma 

5. Perimeters
We are 'free range' parents which means our kids get a lot of independent time, including outside. Granted, we are blessed abundantly with the means to do this as we live on top of a mountain with a huge yard and surrounding wooded area (and farm land behind that). We really can parent like our parents did and let the kids outside by themselves and then scream for them to come home to eat. Our kids' perimeters around our home are based on their age and their own comfort levels.

6. Hygiene
We try to keep it simple in the summer - swimming counts as a bath. This is normal summer standard, right? We also try to keep our Thursday 'Hygiene Day' rule in tact so that all the kids get bathed/showered and nails clipped/checked on Thursdays. Because then I at least have an idea of the last time it for sure happened. #bigfamprobs

7. Bedtime
It's been several years that we have used the No Bedtime Summer at our house and it works for us. I am a morning person, so if the kids are staying up late and sleeping in, it actually works better for me than trying to wrestle kids into bed at night. We generally stay awake and outside until the sun goes down anyway which can be almost 10p in the summer - and we are often making a fire and sitting on the porch while the kids jump on the trampoline after that. The kids either crash out on the couch where they are or they go up to bed when they are ready by themselves.

8. Preserving the free time
This is new for me - I'm still learning - but I finally hit my moment of clarity to just say no to busyness. We got a ton of flyers home the last few weeks from school with all kinds of activities, day camps, and sports camps. I loved that there were so many ideas for about 45 seconds and then I was tired; tired of even thinking of the driving to and from and watching the clock. So I've been trying very hard to focus on the freedom of a clear schedule; no classes or camps or weekly commitments. Although (I said I'm still learning!) I have signed Gemma and Violet up for a week long camp each at our community arts center in July because Grey is playing all-star baseball this summer (another lost battle) and they get something just for them too. Gem will be doing theater camp and Violet is doing art camp.

So, that's how I am attempting to 'survive summer' with four energetic and starving all the time kiddos. What are your best tips and tricks to keep everyone relatively sane and happy during the summer?

Around Here Week 18: 04/28-05/05

A glimpse into what was happening around here while we enjoyed Screen Free Week 2019!

   

photo cred: Tasha Adams

 

photo cred: Tausha Garrettson

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 94+ hours (of 1000)

Up 23 hour this week! Screen free week will do that to ya, though! We had a beautiful weather week and tons of outside time since...what else is there do you don't have screens distracting you, right? Spring sports, and a huge kid playdate (see below), and a field trip to the zoo all helped boost my hours for this week. Gosh, the fresh air in my lungs and brain feels great! Summer, we can almost taste you! 

Reading and finishing There's No Such Things as Bad Weather by Linda Akeson McGurk. Gosh, such an impactful and important book as both a mom and an educator. I look at my big kid students who have lived childhoods that are so different than mine (with only 20 years between them) and wonder how we can ever make it right for them. It is definitely a longer post for another day all my feelings about outdoor time and standardized tests/academic focus too early, and freedoms/responsibilities, and accountability but this book had me so inspired while also so overwhelmed and furious. long story, short: go read it! I also started and finished Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and oh.my.gosh. Loved it so much and thought about so many of my students that I'm worried about because I know they are carrying around trauma that they don't want to tell anyone about. Maybe not exactly the same trauma as Melinda from the story, but trauma nonetheless. I've already borrowed it out to a student that was on my mind while I was reading it. Again, long story, short: go read it! 

Turkey calling. We have seen a turkey in our yard almost every morning this week and now all the kids are practicing their turkey calling. Violet is seriously blowing us away with how well she can turkey call with or without the mouth caller. We went for an evening stroll to see if we could roost the turkeys, and it took us back behind our house where we are pretty sure we saw it's roosting tree. But even luckier - the horses, pony, and goats were out at the farm behind our house and the kids were over the moon to see them and feed them carrots! 

Hamster-sitting for Miss Hannah who went on a mission trip this week to Camden, NJ. The kids are fully in charge of taking care of little Hemelia and they are pleased as punch to do so. She is so kind and sweet to hold. She is sleeping in the girls' room and has us all cracking up at night when she makes so much noise running on her little wheel. Somehow it doesn't keep the girls up at all, but a few nights, I've had to carry her cage downstairs because it keeps me up down the hall! Oh, Hemelia, we love you so, I fear they won't want to give you back! 

Chaperoning Grey's third grade field trip to the Pittsburgh zoo! We got a beautiful weather day at the zoo and I had my little group of five third graders all day. Grey went through the same emotions that Gemma did last year on her field trip (jealous/sad/worried) when some of his classmates really clung to me and wanted to hold my hand and be near me the whole time. I had a little chat with him to remind him that he gets to be with me all.the.time; every day and every night from the beginning to forever and ever as his momma (haha, and half the time he can barely stand me!) and that maybe some of his classmates don't have a momma who look them in the face and laugh at their jokes and it's okay to share for this one day. After our chat, he was better and said he was grateful that he gets me as his mom all the time and thanked me a million times for coming as a chaperone. The third graders were so sweet and if you ever need your soul recharged - seriously take a bunch of eight and nine year olds to the aquarium! They were dazzled and so curious about everything - just what my heart needed! 

Hosting a giant kid playdate at our house to celebrate Screen Free week on Friday night. We had about 28 kids throughout the evening playing baseball, jumping on the trampoline, going for a hike, roasting marshmallows around the fire, dancing in the rain, playing the card game spoons, and best of all - sliding down a giant water slide greased up with water and dishwashing soap! 

Seeing two real life theater shows in two days! Brandon's co-worker acted in her church's theater group production of All is fair at the Mountain Playhouse and we went for a date night followed by pizza and a drink at Merchants'. The show was very cute and had us laughing the whole time - they actually put on a very professional and impressive show for being a church theater group! The following day, our whole family went to see my students' musical Zombie Prom at the high school auditorium. My students all did amazing (I know how hard they have been practicing and working too!) It was a great afternoon and our children were actually very well entertained and mostly behaved for the whole show (except Rust kept asking 'is it ober?' every time they turned the lights down for scene change - HAH)

Getting chocked up to see the students' incredible art displayed at the art exhibit in the mountain playhouse - including two of the pieces that were originally made for me by my student Damien. When the exhibit was asking for submissions, he asked if he could submit two of the pieces he created for me earlier this year and I agreed as long as I could get them back (hehhee). We got to see all the awesome work this weekend, and when I saw Damien's hanging in the gallery-it brought tears to my eyes. He is so talented; as all my kids are; and he has really come a long way this year and I am so proud! 

Spring Sporting with one soccer game each for the girls and three baseball games for Grey (2 for his own team and 1 game that he played up with the majors). The girls are doing great in soccer but are total opposites in the way they play. Gem is an awesome defender while Violet is pushing people out of the way to take the ball to the net. It's hilarious to flip from one game to the next to see how different their personalities shine through in the game. Grey is still loving playing pitcher and short stop and he even had his first in the field homerun at West Surburban on Wednesday night in a tough loss.  We celebrated Opening day at the ballfields with Gem and Grace offering free face painting for fans and chocolate chip cookies for the concession stand. 

Teaching all the old school ways with (mostly) no screens! I collected the kids cellphones on the way into class everyday (mwhaha) and we did everything without screens - we read our novels, played some fun paper/pencil games (like taco tuesday vocab review), we did readers' theater acting out chapters, played El Que Sabe, Sabe, and even had an immigration simulation in Spanish 2 Honors. On Friday, we went outside to the courtyard to play Running Dictation and Cucharas (Spanish verb conjugation spoons). We did a lot of talking about our favorite non-screen activities and I think I got some kids remembering that all the most fun happens without screens (sports! fishing! camping! hiking! sleeping (said all my students)! cooking! dirt bike riding!)

Making not too much - I've been horrrrrrrible about meal planning and kicking myself for it every night when I'm like, 'what's for dinner? Oh wait, I'm the mom so I'm supposed to know' ugh.  We did have fried rice & quesadillas, and hot dogs & smores over the fire and then we were lucky to get turkey soup from gigi (thank you!) and we ate out the other nights (hello pizza, tollgate, and Merchants). 

Screen Free Week 2017 Reflections

The first week of May, our family participated in our fifth annual Screen Free Week where we pulled out the plugs from our screen devices (tvs, laptop, tablets, and the social media on our phones) and spent the week unplugged and looking up.

At five years in, everyone in our family is pretty familiar with how the week operates and has turned into basically a standard 'holiday' week that we celebrate at this time year; like Mardi Gras or St. Patrick's Day, or Shark Week.  In fact, at these ages (with no phones or devices of their own), the kids enjoy screen free week mostly because they get us all to themselves as WE (the parents) are not stuck with our noses in our devices.

And so, as in years past, I tape up a reminder note on the television and flip off it's surge protector, I tuck the iPad on top of the fridge and let the battery waste away, I close my laptop down, and we stow our phones on the kitchen counter in hopes of forgetting about them. And we get about to living.

There is plenty of time for cooking, baking, and eating during Screen Free week.  The kids made our Taco Tuesday dinner all by themselves and the girls jumped in on helping to make Surprise monkey bread and blueberry cookies for snacks.  There is also a lot of time for sitting together and enjoying meals together.  We have a standard no devices at the dinner table rule - but often times during lunch, I'll admit, I feed the kids and eat mine at the counter 'on the go' while paying our bills online or blogging or sending emails.  This week, I just sat at the table and had lunch with them which was certainly a change of pace --so.much.endless.talking from both girls.

Also, during Screen Free Week, we read, a lot. 

We never did make to the library because by the time the girls woke up, Rust was already headed for his first nap of the day, and then by the time he woke up and lunch, and then it would be cutting it to close to the bus stop for Grey..blah blah blah, we just never made it.  But no worries as our in-home library is pretty extensive and we had plenty of reading material available to keep everyone satisfied all week.  And I logged some serious hours and finally finished the book The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison that I had been slowly (blissfully) chipping away at all year!

We did our regular weekly chores and got them all finished each day! Plus, I even threw in a few extras like wiping down baseboards and cleaning out the pantry/refrigerator of expired/un-used items, and deep cleaning the couch cushions.  Probably the second best part as a Mum about screen free week is how much gets down in terms of household duties.  It's amazing the amount of time I have when devices are removed from the picture (ugh, hate admitting that every year, but seriously).  

Besides a few little bonus chores, I also took the speedrail into crazytown.  Meaning = I loaded up all the toys into garbage bags (six of them by the end!) and hauled everything to the attic where it will stay for some other day - months from now when I have the sanity to go through it all (sorry future Tab).  

This act, then prompted a deep clean and furniture rearranging in the kids' bedrooms, playroom, and living room.  After coming home three days in a row from work where the house looked drastically different than the day before, Brandon finally said, "It's like a home renovation reveal show every time I come home from work!"  I was highly productive during the unplugged week, but also flat out, dead tired every night - so, another perk -  9:30p bedtimes on the daily. 

Lola is judging me and my descend into the 'get-rid-of-all-the-things' abyss.

The kids have been playing so much better now that the overwhelming amount of choices have been removed from their play things.  Which is what every minimalist ever has said before but is darn near impossible to believe until you see it with you own eyes.  It takes me now FIVE MINUTES to clean up the entire upstairs.  It's amazing.  They've only asked for two things that have been removed (Barbie doll house and a whole mess of babydoll clothes) and when I told them it's in the attic they say, "Oh yeah...okay." 

Oddly enough, we also spent a lot of time focused on bugs.  The girls liked using our Usborne Big Book of Bugs to try to figure out what kind of insects they were seeing.  Gemma was very interested in locating caterpillar nests outside in the trees and bushes (ew).  And we were able to move our chrysalis caterpillars into the butterfly habitat to wait for them to 'hatch.' 

We spent four evenings at the baseball diamond cheering, playing, coaching, and eating (both concession stand and our own homemade 'fast food' in tupperware containers).  It was kind of a chilly weather week though, so we had to really bundle up and hang in as all-weather fans.  Thank goodness for the baseball because our outdoor hours for the week were relying on our time there - otherwise, we were too chilly (or cleaning too much! ha!) to spend much time outside during the day.  

Another thing that always becomes glaringly obvious during screen free week are the small pockets of time that I find to squeeze in one-on-one time with each kid.  Having four can usually send me to bed each night with a guilty conscious, endlessly worried about whether or not each kid had enough of Me during the day.  Did I give enough individualized attention with personal love language to each child?!  

Inevitably, cutting out screens creates lots of little moments for paying closer and more intentional focus to normally rushed parts of our day - and since everyone is a little more tired than usual from using their own actual brains instead of zombie'ing out in front of screens - that means I get more individual time with kids while other ones are resting or napping.  

All in all, the verdict is in - we are refreshed and grateful after another year of participating in Screen Free Week.  I, personally, really needed the restart as I've felt so loaded down with the constant and overwhelming access to information; of any kind.  There's a lot of pressure to be 'in the know,' about so much today, about your social media friends and their posts and the news and television shows that get binged and the latest movies and gossip.  Gosh, it's exhausting even just writing all that.  A week away is such a strong reminder for me that it all goes on whether I'm looking or not.  

I've tried to be more conscious of my own use of screens in our regular non-holiday celebrating days.  I've found I'm much successful in avoiding mindless scrolling when my phone is left out of sight, so I park it on the kitchen counter and leave it there.  And now that the toy clutter is gone - it's lit a spark under both Brandon and I to reel in the rest of the house and all the unnecessary things that can be collected for donation (or the trash pile, honestly). 

I think the most important thing about Screen free week is that it reminds you that our relationship with screens is one that is in need of constant reflection and readjusting if necessary.  Screen awareness is always what I am reminded of after our week being unplugged.  Life feels so much more enjoyable, and real, and valuable when we're looking up and into the faces of the people we love.

Did you participate in any way? I'd love to hear about it!