Tackle It Tuesday: Yard Helpers

This past weekend, as I was struggling to wake up enough to drink my coffee, the kids were pinging off the walls. That's how my daughter wound up making pancake batter from scratch from the first time. It's great that both kids are old enough to learn how to do more things by themselves.

James kept begging me to download yet another Minion App for his iPad.
 - "Not unless you do a chore," I told him. "That app costs money."
 - "Yes!" he cried. "I do a chore! I'm gonna get a Minion app!"

Okey-dokey, time to come up with a chore he can do with minimal supervision ...

I told James he could rake the back lawn, but that he first needed to change out of pjs and into clothes. He took off for his room at warp speed. I took this opportunity to suck down half a cup of coffee.

James' sister, meanwhile, was starting to ask if she could do a chore. She suggested sweeping the back patio and I took her up on her offer, directing her to first change into work clothes.

To make a long story short, we spent over an hour in our backyard, raking, sweeping, and tidying away a whole summer's worth of stuff. During rest periods, we'd drink some water and talk about what we'd tackle next. By 10:30, we'd filled a green garbage bin and learned more about the arts of raking, sweeping, and sorting discarded items among our 3 waste bins.

As the fruit trees' leaves are just starting to turn colour and fall, there will be ample opportunities to become proficient at these tasks.

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