Housework and homeschooling

Years ago I had a friend who had a teenage son in public school. "He doesn't have any chores," she said quite frankly. "Keeping up with his schoolwork is his chore."

I wonder if that is common? It does seem like it would be hard to find time to do housework when you're in school for eight hours, have two hours of homework, and are in the school musical or on a sports team.

I often hear the global complaint that "kids today have no responsibilities around the house," although I don't know if there's any truth to it.

Here's an interesting quote from this site:

I am seriously concerned about children today, no manners, no chores, no responsibilities ...

My neighbor ( a 5th grade teacher) once told me that at a holiday party her students were sitting on the floor playing games. A drink was knocked over and she watched the boy who it belonged to. He was uninterested. When she finally asked him why he was not cleaning it up…he said, ” at my house my mom does all the cleaning up…” OH RIGHT!

I certainly think that homeschooling makes it easier for kids to learn to do housework. I know one woman who said that Friday is "Life Skills" day, where they do no bookwork or academics, but instead spend their time cleaning the house and cooking together.

Here's what my girls, ages 5 and 7, are doing around the house these days. (My son does nothing at the moment, not because he is a boy, but because he is only two.)

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Both girls have their "morning routine," which consists of making their bed, either tucking their pajamas under the pillow or putting them in the laundry basket (depending on what day it is), getting dressed, brushing their teeth and hair, and carrying their breakfast dishes to the sink (although I often do the last part for them.) They also need to do a brief pick-up of their room.

Rachael, age 7, has the "job" of unloading the utensils out of the dishwasher every morning. She says she likes to do that.

At dinnertime (this is a new thing) the girls set the table: Rebecca, age 5, sets out the napkins, and Rachael does the rest.

After lunch and dinner, about 90% of the time they both help clear the table, including scraping their plates and putting them in the dishwasher. (The rest of the time I tell them they can go, and I'll take care of it for them.)

Lately I've started something new that works nicely: while Rachael does her "independent schoolwork" in the morning, Rebecca and I sort and start the laundry. We sort the whites and colors, then put in a load together. She enjoys that, especially pouring in the detergent and fabric softener, and picking the right settings on the machine and turning it on.

One day a week, I haul up all the clean underwear and socks that have accumulated in the laundry basket. I dump it all on the floor and ask one or both girls to come sort out their underwear and socks (and Benjamin's socks), pair the socks up, and put it all away. I put away the rest of the clean laundry while they do this.

When we go grocery shopping, they help me load the conveyor belt. When we get home, I bring the groceries upstairs and set the bags at the top of the stairs. The girls both carry the bags from there to the kitchen, empty them, and put some of it away. This is a huge help, and I am surprised at how good they are at it. Today they were doing this while I changed Benjamin, and when I got to the kitchen the bags were all emptied, there was ice cream and waffles in the freezer, etc.

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So, it is not very much. But it is definitely way more than what I was doing at their age.

Is it more than the typical schooled kid? I have no idea.

Disney Photos - Misc

Okay, this is the final set of Disney Photos, which means I have to think
of something New and Insightful to post about tomorrow ...



I realized, while looking through the pictures, that there are almost no shots
of any rides. But here's Rebecca on the Carousel!



The Christmas tree at the entrance of Animal Kingdom was pretty cool.



Can you stand some more character shots?
Here's Minnie Mouse signing Rachael's book. I really do need to learn
how to make hard copies.



Rachael always had plenty to tell the different characters.
Notice how "in awe" Rebecca looks in this picture.

Well, it was a good trip, even though we did feel kind of cheated
due to getting sick. Well, I guess that just means we'll have to go
back again, huh? I'm tentatively thinking maybe Fall of 2010.

Disney Photos - More characters

We had two character meals: Chef Mickey's, and the Princess Storybook Lunch
that only Rachael and I could go to.

In addition to that, we saw lots of other characters. Here's a few:


I think both girls said that seeing Ariel was their favorite.
This is "Ariel's Grotto" in the Magic Kingdom.

I kept thinking to myself (rather wistfully, I suppose)
how fascinating it would be to be a Professional Princess all day.




We really did not care for Hollywood Studios.
Unfortunately, that was sort of the last real day of our vacation,
because the series of vomiting began the next morning.

However, the Playhouse Disney show was really fun.
Here's, um ... Leo and Annie, from Little Einsteins,
outside the Disney Playhouse theater.
The kids also got their picture taken with the characters from JoJo's Circus.



Rachael with Chip and Dale at Animal Kingdom!



Rachael and Benjamin with Donald Duck at Animal Kingdom!
Rachael told DD that he was her favorite character, so he wrote "#1"
next to his signature in the book. She thought that was pretty neat.

Disney Photos -- The Grand Floridian

What was ironic about this trip was that my parents were originally going to go with us.
My mother spent quite a bit of time of the phone making the arrangements,
and they paid for a good chunk of it as well.

Then my mother got sick, and they weren't even able to come.

Anyway, my mother really wanted to stay at the Grand Floridian Resort,
so that's where we were.

Of course if it had been us planning (and completely
paying for) the trip, we would have stayed at some hotel off Disney property.
Robert even made some sort of joke that we were like the Beverly Hillbillies
staying there.

But it was very nice being able to hop on the monorail to get everywhere.


Watching the monorail go by was the main form of entertainment when we were actually
in the room. Not surprisingly, the monorail was the Big Hit of the trip for Benjamin.



There was a big Christmas tree in the lobby.
I took this picture of Robert and Rachael right before we left to go to the Princess lunch.



There was a also a big gingerbread house/candy store in the lobby.
Yes, it's made of real gingerbread, and the entire lobby smelled of ginger.

I kept telling the kids we would buy some candy there, but come to think of it,
we never did. Oops.



One night Rachael and I walked over to a part of the resort where there was a good view
of the boat light show and fireworks. That was nice, just because it was kind of different.

Disney Photos -- Animal Kingdom

On Thursday, Rebecca was still sick and Robert was Not Feeling Great
(he got Officially Sick after we got home, just in time for Christmas),
so Rachael, Benjamin, and I headed to Animal Kingdom ourselves.

Benjamin was excited because we got to ride the "cool bus" to get there.



We had lunch at the Tusker House in Africa.
It was very good, probably my favorite restaurant, with Whispering Canyon as a close second.
I loooved the bread pudding.



We had never been to Animal Kingdom before, and I had heard some mixed reviews.
Basically, I liked it. It was pretty and shady and a little different.

In addition to enjoying the Tusker House, we saw a neat bird show and got to see a lot of characters
(which Rachael really liked now that she had the autograph album).

We would have stayed longer, but Benjamin wasn't doing so well. I thought he was just tired.
It never occured to me that he (and I) were the next to be hit with the stomach virus.

These animal photos are all from Kilamanjaro Safari, which we all liked a lot:

Disney Photos -- Magic Kingdom at night

We didn't go to any of the evening shows at the other parks,
but we did get to see the parade at Magic Kingdom.


I took a lot of pictures of the parade, but the only one that came out
semi-decent is this one of Cinderella. They're all pretty blurry.
The parade was cool, though.

After the parade Rebecca really wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion,
and Rachael really did not want to ride the Haunted Mansion.
So Robert took Rebecca while the rest of us waited and watched the fireworks from
inside a restaurant (due to the noise).



Here's the Cinderella Castle. Beautiful, beautiful.



Me and the girls on Main Street. I took a picture of Robert with the kids,
but unfortunately it came out even more blurry than this one.



I guess these pictures are better than nothing, but they really don't capture
the truly magical feeling at night, especially at Christmas time. It was wonderful.

Disney Photos -- Minnie's House

The girls wanted me to take a lot of pictures of them inside
Minnie's house in ToonTown.

So I did.


Here they are by the fireplace.



This picture sums up Rachel pretty well.



Oh, but I like this one of her too.



It's always nice, as a parent, to see pictures of your kids looking like
they really love and enjoy each other.

Of course, seeing it in real life is always a good thing, too.