mathmom's blog

I've been trying to get the kids to do chores around the house---it's "good for them" (TM) and I know that it's easier to get them to help out now than later. Today I asked Amanda to help take out the garbage and recycling. We took the trash bag and recycling out to the bins. Amanda dumped one of the recycling containers in to the bin, I dumped the other one in, and then I went inside to get a last piece of garbage for the trash bag. By the time I got back, Amanda looked at me proudly with the empty trash bag in her hands. "All the trash is in the trash bin!" I managed to get the garbage back into the bag, and Amanda and I had a little talk about recycling. She was just trying to help, I know. Isn't there some easier way to teach them? I am constantly amazed by how much Luke likes to help out, and how competent he is. When he clears his dish, he doesn't just take the dish to the counter, he scrapes the excess food off into the trash and ...

Ever since the day I sent Eleanor and Amanda to school without their shoes (kind teachers let them wear dress up shoes, if I recall correctly) I have tried to find a way to make sure that we don't forget necessary things when we leave the house. My solution has been to use a checklist: a short list that includes the things we would be really sad if we forgot. The checklist has to be automatic to function, or something gets left at home, so I find myself repeating it out loud as the kids are getting into the car: "Shoes! Jackets! Drinks! Bags! Snacks!" The other day as I was getting into the car, I heard Luke start to yell out, "Shoes! Snacks!" I think he gets it.

Yesterday I bought 3 new sponges, one of which happened to be purple. Yesterday evening after supper as I was getting the traffic report from Michael, I heard Eleanor ask, "Mom! Could you please clear your dishes!" By the time I was off the phone (maybe 1 minute later) the table was covered in soap suds except for the dinner dishes. I quickly cleared them and then Amanda found a sponge. Then Luke wanted in the action. By the end of 10 minutes of more or less concentrated cleaning, the table and all the chairs had been soaped down, wiped down (by me), soaped down and wiped off again. They are pretty clean. I wonder if the magic of the new sponges will still be in effect tonight? p.s. Has anyone ever seen good rubber gloves for children? I have googled a few, but nothing really looks good quality---the Dora ones have cloth cuffs, there are some latex throw away ones... A few minutes of scrubbing made Amanda's hands hurt =(

I have figured out why I hate folding socks---it's a simple problem of mathematics. 7 days x 2 feet x 5 people = 70 socks---not counting all the times that Amanda loses her socks between outings and needs a new pair. The total number of possible pairs of socks is 70x69/2=2415. Given a random sock pick, the chance that you pick out the pair for that sock is 1 in 69. Once you've got that pair, the chance you pick out a pair on the next two grabs is 1/67... Assignment: what is the chance that, reaching randomly into the bin each time, you come up with exactly the right pairing of socks? If I had the time and no toddler, I could figure out the average time it would take you to pair up all the socks (someone has surely already done this). This doesn't even take into account all the lone socks that simply have no mate, no matter how many times you reach into the bin. I realize that in real life the grabs are not random (you won't accidentally grab Eleanor's purple soc...

We have too many toys at our house. I realized this as I was looking at toy storage/organization sites, thinking about the chore of sorting all the toys, finding the missing pieces, and keeping them sorted despite the best efforts of the children. So instead of investing in new toy storage options, I decided to cut down on the clutter. I have friends who regularly sort through their kids toys, send some away, rotate old toys out and "new" old toys in from storage. My problem with this is that they aren't my toys. When I have tried to get rid of old toys, before I manage to take them to Goodwill the kids will ask me "Where did the big rabbit go?" and we'll get them out of the box. I don't know which toys they want to get rid of. For example, they have a strange fascination with Mr. Potato head, which would go to the dump if I had my choice. On the other hand, every time I have tried to get the kids to get rid of toys, suddenly they all become precio...

I have something to confess. I do my laundry every week on the same day. When I sort the laundry, I put the piles in exactly the same place every week. I have a list of what to do after dinner every night to get the kitchen clean. The list is prioritized, with putting away food first on the list and sweeping the floor last. We have a shelf in our house where the library books go. I have a weekly menu template: each week we have one dish each of beef, chicken, pork, bean, pancakes, including one cooked on the grill and one in the crock pot. We plan our menu on Sunday, I go shopping on Monday. This summer I even had a monthly menu: meals planned for a month! I still can't quite believe that we used that for 4 months. I am confessing this because I want you all to understand that I am not a born organized person. In the past, I've been proud of my unpredictable habits and freewheeling, spontaneous personality. The truth of the matter is that these habits have been develo...

Luke likes to clean more than either of the girls ever did. This evening, after Luke and Amanda's shower, Michael asked Amanda to dump some water out of the toys that the kids were playing with. Luke heard this, dumped the water out of the toy that he was holding (he didn't even dump it on the floor!), put it in the corner where we keep the toys, and then collected all the other toys and put them away. He really enjoys putting dishes away when the dishwasher is clean. I just ask him to come over and help and he busily puts all of the kids plates, bowls and cups into the drawers that they belong in---I don't need to direct him, he does it by himself. The only time that this creates a problem is when he tries to put dirty dishes from the dishwasher into the cupboards. He really loves using a broom. So much so that he will take his bowl of (dry) cereal and dump it on the floor, run to the closet, get the broom, and start pushing the cereal around on the floor. I hope tha...

Eleanor's last day of kindergarten came on Friday. I had no idea how hard it would hit me---she is growing up and growing out on her own. She's grown a few inches, and she is much more mature in her behavior. The biggest obvious difference is that she learned how to read. But she has also learned to follow a schedule, to participate in a group, to make and lose and re-make friends on a deeper level than seeing them once at the park. She is closer to being able to make her dreams come true without help (the latest one is a cooking club: "Eat the Alphabet!" More on that later). She is by no means perfect, and I will complain about the things she does in this blog sometimes (even knowing that she reads it sometimes---Hi Eleanor!). But I'm pleased with the change I've seen over the past year, and I am looking forward to seeing the change next year. The biggest change for me, of course, will be having to take care of 3 kids full time this summer. I'm try...

We tried to go to the neighborhood pool today, but it was closed. So instead of moping around the house (which was my first instinct, I admit) I got out the inflatable boat wading pool and Amanda, Luke and I washed it. We got very wet. I think Luke had a good time splashing, I know Amanda had a good time. Eleanor came out at the end to help us "water the lawn". We washed a few more things that were hanging out under the porch: our big Christmas tree stand, a watering can, an inflatable sprinkler... My favorite was Amanda standing in the tree stand saying, "I'm Amanda Christmas tree!" I had fun chasing Eleanor with the hose, Amanda tried to wash us all, Luke wandered around with the washcloth scrubbing things and generally splashing in the water (although he wasn't sure about the hose). Eleanor tried to show the rainbow from the hose spray to Amanda, but I don't think Amanda understood what she was talking about. All in all, I felt like a good moth...

When Eleanor was about 1 I made a list to help me clean the kitchen. It had the important tasks in the order I thought it made sense to do them, so I wouldn't start on one thing and randomly clean up bits of the kitchen... I also like figuring out the "critical path" for getting the project done in the least time and most efficiently. My list began with things like "Put away clean dishes" and ended with things like "Wash the floor" which never got done because I was always fed up with cleaning by the time I got halfway down the list (to "Wipe down the counters", actually). I eventually memorized the list and didn't need to look at it for a long time. I looked at the list again when we moved to our new house when Eleanor was about 2.5 and Amanda was a baby. The very first thing on the list was "Clean the floor". I could not figure out what I had meant, I had no memory of writing that step on the list. It didn't mean wa...

Today I did a little teeny bit of spring cleaning---I tried to tidy up the porch, one of my most favorite places to be in the spring. I tried to tidy it up while Luke and Amanda were around, which reminds me why I don't usually try to do that. First I swept the leaves off the porch. Luke helped first by grabbing the broom and swinging it wildly around. I don't know what babies have with brooms several times taller than they are, but my kids loved swinging brooms around. I finally gave him a hand broom and rescued my broom from him. He then proceeded to sit in the middle of the pile of leaves and pick them up with the hand broom and throw them around. Amanda helped by hiding behind the pieces of porch furniture and by picking up the leaves that were stuck between the floor boards of the porch. Then I needed to wash off the chalk from the walls. I had started letting the kids write on the wall with chalk one day when it had been raining for about a week and we really need...

We are taking a trip to Colorado next week to go skiing with friends. I have been getting a bit panicky about traveling with 1 baby, 1 newly potty trained food-allergic preschooler, one excitable kindergartner. To compensate, I have started compulsive list making. I enjoy making lists, especially since it reminds me of my grandpa who was quite organized, and always encouraged me to make a list. One day I spent about 45 minutes thinking of everything we could possibly use on the trip. The list was beautiful! I split it out into categories (eating, sleeping, playing, clothing), a separate list for things we need to buy there, things to ship there, and so on. I felt so organized, and much less worried. Unfortunately, I lost the list. I just can't win.