Playing hookey

I have so many things I need to get done today. Laundry and cleaning are paramount among them. I bought a few things yesterday for the kids so they can help out. Part of the Waldorf philosophy is that play is the work of children. Children love to imitate grown up "work" and won't see it as such unless someone tells them it is not fun. Since I want my kids to not see chores as work for as long as possible, we're going to do all we can to foster the opposite. Waldorf educators also recommend that children have tools that they can use that are appropriate for their size and that do real work, rather than pretend ones that don't. Some of the natural toy catalogs have stuff, but I didn't feel like ordering online, so I thought I'd try to put together my own stuff for them. Little Red Wagon toys had child-size real mops, so I did pick up two of those, but the rest of the stuff I put together.

I found two scrub brushes that had short, adjustable length handles on them. The handles screwed off the brushes, so I figured when they weren't being used for scrubbing, the handles could get screwed to other things to make them the right height for little people. All the things in this picture have handles that can be exchanged for the shorter ones.




























I got two of most things to decrease the amount of fighting. I also labeled everything with names, so the boys know what belongs to whom. In total, I got a bucket with a wringer for the mops, two wash pans for doing dishes or whatever, a microfiber dust mop, two small brooms, two handheld mini-brooms with dustpans, and the two scrubbers with extendable handles. When I brought them home, you'd've thought I was handing out golden tickets. The mops were the biggest hit. The boys can't wait to mop the floor. I'm sure it has to do with making a wet mess.















Here's the wringing bucket up close (and the dish pans in the background), and the two mops.

Instead of mopping today, we actually went outside. It was in the upper 50s this morning, so the kids put on their rain pants and went out with me. My car has been in desperate need of an enema, so I cleaned out the car while they rode their bikes. Happy, happy boys. The back yard is far too swampy to play in right now, but once the grass really starts to get growing this spring, we're going to get this.


It was so nice to be outside and not have to be bundled. And the best part? I have flowers blooming! My crocuses are up and are starting to bloom. All of my spring bulbs have pushed up leaves, and one of my daffodils has a bud on it. Ah, spring....I can almost smell it! I didn't get any pictures of the boys on their bikes. I was too busy trying to keep Jonah from tanking on his tricycle. He refuses to put his feet on the pedals to propel the bike. His method instead is to treat the trike as a scooter and use his feet on the ground to push. All fine and dandy unless he's going down hill and the pedals catch his feet. Needless to say, both boys were wearing helmets.

Liam was insistent that I take a picture of him while I was trying to snap pictures of the cleaning tools. He got his hair cut yesterday at grandma's stylist, so he's got a new do to show off.