Feb
3

Chores

by Sofia   -   in Good things for kids

Do your kids do chores? Now that mine are 4 and 6 they are well in the age where they are capable of doing things around the house and most often they are eager to help ( except for when it comes to cleaning their own room but I´ll get back to that one). They love to sort out the laundry with me for piles of different colours and materials. And hand washing dishes for some weird reason is very appealing to kids and mine also love to wipe surfaces, especially if there is a spray bottle in use too ( I only give them a natural solution, no hard chemicals). They bring their used clothes to the laundry hamper. They also help me fold towels from the dryer and help to fold ironed napkins, kitchen towels and pillowcases.

They can´t take out the trash yet as we live in a building and the trash boxes are in the courtyard and our staircase has a locked door on that side that is very heavy.  But they do put their trash in the trash bin. And they are supposed to bring their plates in the kitchen after dinner and help me offload the washing machine. They love to set the table and just last week Cotton Candy came asking me for cocktail sticks just before dinner and she had made cute little flags with the sticks and wrapping paper for everyone´s table setting.

Bubble Gum is often asking potatoes for dinner just so she could ” wash off the dirt” as she says. Meal prep is one of their favourites to do I think. I like to give them an easy task while I cook, like tearing up the lettuce for a salad etc.  Cotton Candy can whisk a great omelette now and I really should give her more to do too like chopping things for salads. She has a small children´s knife from Opinel but I saw a bit bigger knife for kids at Tokyokan that I´m considering getting for her. Bubble Gum is not allowed chopping yet as I´m fairly sure she would end up with a band-aid in her finger ( she is mummy´s girl in that sense too…) but she loves to help and just the other night she grated carrots for a salad.

I think what most appeals to them in chores are either doing them with me or in the same room with me. They like to be together and helpful. When it comes to collecting after themselves, say a “lovely little” mess of Sylvanian families in the nursery floor, it´s a whole different story. Then I hear whining and ” I´m too tiiiireed”. But their room must be cleared every night. Not to the standard of perfection but just so that it´s nice and comfortable to sleep in there. So we put on a song and help them out to find correct places for everything.  A long standing favourite is ” a spoonful of sugar” from Mary Poppins but now my girls have their own playlist on Spotify with pop songs too. When we are dancing and cleaning together it´s just so much more fun. They also make their own beds most mornings ( they often remember to fold their pj´s under the pillow too. I sometimes do remake them after they have left out the door ( shh, they don´t see the difference). 

Feb
2

Night light

by Sofia   -   in Good things for kids

” Without ice-cream there would be darkness and chaos.”

” Life is like an ice-cream, enjoy it before it melts.”

” If we are what we eat… Well, I´m awfully sweet.”

Feb
1

Bye bye January

by Sofia   -   in Random

Tammikuu oli ihana! Joskin se meni hieman sairastellessa, mutta ainakin saimme nauttia hetken lumesta ja pakkasesta. Pidän toki lämpimästä ilmasta ja jokaisesta vuodenajasta, mutta taidan silti olla pohjoisen tyttö, sillä syksyt ja talvet sopivat minulle hyvin. Syksyissä rakastan myös niitä sateisia ja tuulisia päiviä kun ulkona on kaunis ruska. Talvessa ihaninta ovat juuri kauniin lumiset päivät. Eivätkä pelkästään ne aurinkoiset pikkupakkaset, vaan pidän myös kunnon lumisateista ja  pakkaspäivistäkin. Kukaan meistä tuskin rakastaa yli kaiken sitten niitä sohjoisia ja vesisateisia talvipäiviä. Tässä muutama kuva kuluneelta kuulta puhelimestani…

Leivoimme herkullisia keksejä.