All before lunch today, my kids & I got a workout, worked on a much-dreaded chore, had playtime, spent time outdoors, got tired out (for some of us to have a nap), took care of the poison ivy problem behind the fence, learned first-hand about teamwork and also had a science lesson. Actually, this was all accomplished in about 1 1/2 hours. What did we do to accomplish so much? We raked leaves.
I'm not sure if it's good or bad but I seem to be incapable of just letting my kids play. Actually, that's not true, we do plenty of that (during the summer) but now I am in uber-efficiency mode because it's the school year and I know that each minute of every nap counts. There's no way I'm going to use up precious naptime for something as grueling as exercise and I've learned my lesson about exercising just for the sake of exercising while the kids are awake. And as for chores, same thing! It's not that I'm lazy during nap time. Quite the opposite. Most weekends I bring home a suitcase of schoolwork home and a to-do list that would have been hard to accomplish even if I didn't have kids. Plus, I need to watch all those shows I DVR'd throughout the week. So no, I wouldn't waste a good naptime for doing the dishes. Not when I can make it a family event!
So today we went outside with the pure intention of playing (and tiring the kids out so I could do schoolwork during their nap). But there they were... the dreaded leaves. We've had our fun with them but now they're turning our lawn yellow. Now to truly trick children into helping you, you need to just start working. It doesn't hurt to have two of the same size rakes. Today I tried to get Joshua to use a third rake, which was only about 1 foot long and plastic (a sandbox toy). He wasn't buying it and insisted on using my rake, which got him a bit frustrated. Now when a little helper gets frustrated, it's best to drop everything and distract them with something fun (i.e. jumping into a leaf pile) and then incorporate your work into it (i/e. raking leaves on top of the child). So we did this and before I knew it we were all back in the work-mode. Meanwhile Liam and I had a great conversation about how if we put our piles together and raked them at about the same time, we could move the pile much faster. Then we used our two rakes to "sandwich" the leaves and toss them over the fence. Some people like to burn their leaves and more civilized people put them into neat paper bags by the curb for the town to pick up. But we have a poison ivy problem on the other side of the fence so I prefer to dump all the leaves to smother out our little "issue" on the other side of the fence. While we were working in uber-productive mode, Liam informed me that leaves can make new trees. Serious misinformation but we had time to chat so I explained that acorns make new trees but leaves make food. He then told me that if you look with a microscope at a leaf, you can see the stored food. I explained it a little bit more to him and there you go, we had a hands-on science lesson! On our way inside, we stopped to inspect other trees whose leaves were turning colors and to discuss the evergreen on our front walkway.
Multi-tasking with kids doesn't have to end with leaf raking. We often multi-task with laundry too. First, we all end up with clean clothes but then matching socks is educational, right? Not to mention the exercise of making Liam run up & down stairs to put his clothes away in the correct drawers (or the exercise of an out of shape mother doing laundry circuits up and down the stairs). Baking involves measurement, a special treat for mom & dad, a reading activity and when it's all done it makes you look like a great hostess because... you actually baked! But a word of caution- it's probably a good idea to read the recipe before you start since reading while helping a child crack an egg into the badder is... a bit challenging. Once I forgot to read the directions and we ended up with zucchini bread with the seeds still in it. And what about the multi-tasking of playdates? A day for kids to play while their moms and/or dads hang out near the playground (okay, that's just a pipe dream- usually we end up on the same playground, true, but darting from this piece of equipment to that, catching each other's children and sliding down the slide in compromising positions).
Of course, multi-tasking can have it's poor side effects. Like it could end up breaking your vacuum. Or result in making sub-standard baked goods.
Being so good at multi-tasking, one would think I would keep an immaculate house and that I would be on top of my entire to-do list. If you think that, than you haven't visited my house unannounced lately or seen my to-do list. No, my house is far from clean. The leaves that blew into the house via the back porch last weekend... they're still there. And the sink full of dishes, it's still full (to be fair, no matter how often I load & unload the dishwasher, it does just seem like more dishes are waiting to be cleaned). Maybe if we had $ for a maid but I'm pretty sure they're expensive and I'm too stubborn to pay someone to vacuum my house. And maybe I would be able to stay on top of things if I didn't bring home such a full bag every night and weekend, hoping to expend every extra sliver of energy during nap or after bedtime to do schoolwork. So for now, multi-tasking isn't just for fun, exercise or a chance to bond with my family. It's really a matter of survival! So for now we'll keep multi-tasking; like having family night at the grocery store...
P.S. Does anyone know how to spell "uber". I think I spelled it wrong.
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