The easiest way to get someone to do something to ask for their help. Not to assign them with tasks and responsibilities that they may not be familiar with but to get them to help you. In this process you can transfer a skill and an attitude: the job needs doing, the mess needs cleaned up, let's do it together!
I taught my daughters to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen by encouraging them to make a mess. They have helped me make bread since they were two years old, standing on chairs so they could reach the counter. The big bread bowl was way too heavy for their little hands and we learned to make bread the old fashioned way, without any bowls at all. You make a circle of flour on the counter and place the other ingredients into this circle, the liquids too and you hope the flour makes a damn! It is actually a lot of fun, making bread this way and it is a good way to make bread but it will make a mess.
Making bread is probably one of my fondest memories, doing things with my daughters. It is time consuming in a wonderful way. It is product development and magical, it makes good smells and offers hours of conversation. We learned to sweep the flour off the floor, my daughters with their little hand brooms and me with a bigger kitchen broom. We learned that no one appreciates good bread or a nice meal if the kitchen is left in a mess. We learned patience, waiting for the bread to rise. And we always experimented, adding raisins or cheese or chocolate to this mix! Some was pretty good and other batches were failures. We learned that too.
Somebody could probably write a book about what can be learned while making bread. We learned to like each other. We learned success and failure, to read and follow a recipe and to ignore it. We learned that "eggs have to be broken to make omelets", it is okay to make a mess and appreciated when it is cleaned up.
Often we would have that conversation, "what will you do when you grow up"? I would always joke and say I didn't know yet! But from the very beginning it was just expected that they would go on to college, at least get that four year experience and degree, and then they could make up their minds. I am not sure that it was even a matter of choice, it was more like, yes the sun will come up tomorrow and yes, you will go on to the University.
What I do is HERE
I taught my daughters to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen by encouraging them to make a mess. They have helped me make bread since they were two years old, standing on chairs so they could reach the counter. The big bread bowl was way too heavy for their little hands and we learned to make bread the old fashioned way, without any bowls at all. You make a circle of flour on the counter and place the other ingredients into this circle, the liquids too and you hope the flour makes a damn! It is actually a lot of fun, making bread this way and it is a good way to make bread but it will make a mess.
Making bread is probably one of my fondest memories, doing things with my daughters. It is time consuming in a wonderful way. It is product development and magical, it makes good smells and offers hours of conversation. We learned to sweep the flour off the floor, my daughters with their little hand brooms and me with a bigger kitchen broom. We learned that no one appreciates good bread or a nice meal if the kitchen is left in a mess. We learned patience, waiting for the bread to rise. And we always experimented, adding raisins or cheese or chocolate to this mix! Some was pretty good and other batches were failures. We learned that too.
Somebody could probably write a book about what can be learned while making bread. We learned to like each other. We learned success and failure, to read and follow a recipe and to ignore it. We learned that "eggs have to be broken to make omelets", it is okay to make a mess and appreciated when it is cleaned up.
Often we would have that conversation, "what will you do when you grow up"? I would always joke and say I didn't know yet! But from the very beginning it was just expected that they would go on to college, at least get that four year experience and degree, and then they could make up their minds. I am not sure that it was even a matter of choice, it was more like, yes the sun will come up tomorrow and yes, you will go on to the University.
What I do is HERE
