This afternoon I went to sweep the acorns building up on our back steps. I grabbed a rake, a shop broom, and a shovel. Naomi, then went to get her rake and shovel and started to help me. This began a domino affect, Titus and Madeline went and got their rakes and shovels. What began as an attempt to make our back steps safer, became something else entirely.
Taking care of our back steps lead to raking in front of our grill so I wouldn’t roll around while grilling supper. Which lead to raking around our fire pit so we could safely walk around it with out falling in it. The whole time I was working all three kids were right beside me raking, shoveling, and dumping acorns into five gallon buckets, and then dumping the bucket of acorns in a garbage bag. The whole time the kids stuck beside me, watching me, and copying me. They were proud of themselves for helping me to accomplish the task set before us. Without knowing it each of them were doing a great job of filling my bucket, both literally and physically.
When the bags of acorns were put away and all tools put away, each kiddo got to pick two pieces of candy as a reward. They did not have to help me, but they chose to, that I would love to reward!
They learned so much more than raking, they learned to stick with a job with a joyful attitude. They learned that you can have fun while working and that at times you will be rewarded for hard work. They learned that team work gets jobs done faster. Now, to get the rest of the backyard raked and bagged this week! I’m going to need more candy. 😉
