Pedigreed Housewife World

While we were on a Look and See Adventure this week (for some reason these never seem to get old to any of us), we came across a big open field with trees lining the back of the field.   It was breathtaking and there was no traffic on the road so we pulled over to admire nature’s beauty for a few minutes.   Briana asked me why there are no trees on the field part and I told her that someone most likely chopped them down.   She wanted to know why someone would cut down a tree so I told her that we make paper and lots of things out of trees.   She followed up by asking why didn’t they cut down all the trees then and make more paper.   I told her that we didn’t want to cut down all of the trees because they give us air to breathe and they give all the little squirrels, that Abby was cooing are “so cute”, some place to live.   As we drove along, Briana kept asking about how and why we breathe trees and I explained to her that we breathe out carbon dioxide and the trees and other plants

This week I want to teach the kids a more advanced version of cause and effect, primarily to help me when I say, “if you do X again, you will go to time out”, but also to further develop their thinking skills in general.  They understand simple things like if they push a button on one of their toys, a lion will pop up and I want to take that a step further. In this case, the thing that I wanted to teach the kids was the feedback loop.  In other words, it’s one thing to think through the steps to get something done.  What I find interesting is the ability to foresee how those steps will make the final result turn out and then, ahead of time or after a trial run, revise the steps to optimize the final result.  Did I lose you?  In the lion toy example for instance, I want the kids to be able to think “I want the lion to pop up and throw me a piece of paper.” and then realize that they need to wad a piece of paper up of the correct size (experimenting to find that size) and put it in whe

We met with Briana’s Montessori teacher this week to get ready for the new school year, and Briana sat down to write her name on a piece of paper for fun.  It wasn’t that bad, nor was it as good as she used to be able to write.  Everyone slides back a little during the summer, but I think we could use a back to school crash course this week to get back into the mindset of the school year. The priorities (ie the stuff that we let slide this summer) –             Letters and numbers            Shapes and color         Table manners 1. Letters and Numbers Refreshing our letters and numbers was the easiest of the three because letters and numbers are everywhere (all of their tv shows deal with letters or numbers, and of course books) so the kids are constantly seeing and talking about them.  I have been working on not doing everything for the kids that they can do for themselves as my own personal goal this summer, so I let the kids tell me how they want to work on their letters. 

My little Abigail is fully potty trained (day and night) now!!  Yeah for Abby!  She’s super proud of herself and everywhere we go she tells anyone that will listen, “I wear panties.  I big girl now.  I use the potty like a big girl.  Wipe, flush, wash a hands.  No baby pull-ups on Abigail.”  And on and on…Abby’s quite the chatterbox these days.  It’s cute when she tells the grandparents, or her friends.  It’s a little awkward when she tells the grocery bagging person or the bank teller, but I’m glad that she’s proud of herself.  I decided to use this time of personal grooming triumph to reinforce some and teach other grooming and cleaning habits to the girls.  We’re going to talk about cleaning and caring for our teeth and bodies, and cleaning and caring for our things (toys, dishes, house). Cleaning and Caring For Our Things Briana has a self-imposed chore.  At the end of every meal she picks up her plate, and later Abby’s, and throws any remaining food in the trash.  Then she rins