Wednesday, June 30

Chores or Hunt for Treasure?

The other day while McKay was at German kindergarten and Morgan was napping, Easton and I sat down to count all the accumulated coinage in the house. I wanted him to practice naming the coins, counting them, adding them up and such. [Wanna practice self-mastery, try to teach your own child to do something!] We spent over an hour and I told Easton he could keep what he could count. I asked what he thought he might want to buy.

"Super Mario Galaxy 2!!!" he hollered with the power of a thought which errupted after smoldering somewhere deep within for centuries. Sheesh, he was excited!

Heaven help me. I'd been nonchalantly mentioning walks to the shop to buy ice cream, a new Lego vehicle . . . no, he went for the whopper. This couldn't end well.

We sorted, stacked, counted, added and then there were tears. These weren't just tears though, these were heartbroken waterworks that could only be stopped by watching the game trailer snuggled in mom's lap. I reminded him of the commission chore list that he could pick from to earn money, save, and buy the game. He was in despair. It'd take forever. We compromised. If he wanted to be motivated, I'd let him watch the trailer once a day. It was a deal.

We went and got McKay, had lunch, and then Easton was ready to wash some windows. He did a great job, loved being paid! I had to sigh when by the time he was done, Morgan and McKay had pretty much undone what he'd worked so hard to do. Easton didn't even notice.

I recently finished listening to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, wonderfully narrated by Patrick Fraley with different voices for every character. I had it on in the car so the boys heard quite a bit of it now and then. Really loved it! What a great storyteller that ol' Mark Twain was! My dad is a great one too, wish I was! I'm excited to hear Mr. Fraley read about Huck Finn now.

With the window washing, I was half expecting Easton to pull a Tom Sawyer and whitewashing the fence scene with McKay who begged to give it a try. But the allure of the spray bottle was all too new and Easton's goal still so fresh.

Tonight I weeded a neglected spot in our yard and got distracted, leaving my little trowel and weed digger out. The kids were outside playing characters from Sponge Bob, Power Rangers, or Phineas & Ferb. I heard a lot about jellyfish, Gary and Patrick. Anyhow, I got into my favorite show, that PBS "Faces of America," and the boys sauntered over to the shovels and began digging. Dirt was scattering and we heard snippets about buried treasure.


After the show while sweeping up their fun, I asked Easton what they'd been doing. He said they were digging for treasure [like Tom and Huck]. I asked what he hoped the treasure was.

"Cupcakes!"

HA! I told him buried cupcakes probably wouldn't be so good so he opted for, "Gold! . . . uh . . . Money!"

And then the light went on.

"MONEY TO BUY SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2!!! We'll dig more tomorrow, right?!"

I foresee much digging in our future rather than chores being done. Yet I'm almost overwhelmed by an urge to bury some money for them to find, just to see their reaction!