Tonight my friend and I had a blast together kicking around ideas for a joint effort Mommy Run "Pre-School". And rather than focusing on academics (while those are surely apart of it as well) we mainly centered on creating opportunities for discovery.
Discovery about our bodies. Discovery about the earth. Discovery about cultures and peoples and art and photography and dance and nature and... well, you get the idea ;].
What was so fun about it, however, was how in sync we were on some of our ideas. Like doing a unit on life skills (gardening, cooking, cleaning, laundry, hygiene, etc) to instill in our children a sense of capability, confidence, and empowerment.
Which is what inspired the creation of the Freebies I'll be sharing with you today!
Recently, I have been focusing more and more on creating a home environment that fosters these three areas (Capability. Confidence. Empowerment.) anyways!
I have desperately desired to create a more loving and peaceful atmosphere in our house, and through my prayer and study in regards to this matter I felt very strongly that one of the first steps we (that is my husband and I) needed to take was to allow our children to be as self sufficient as possible.
In other words, we needed to create a home where our children had the freedom to try, fail, learn, and try again. Or as my husband and I have come to call it, we needed to create "a loving, learning, laboratory of life."
To us, this means having a home where the dishes are placed at their level so they can get their own plates and cups. A home where their clothes are within their reach, so they can dress themselves in the mornings.
A home where coat racks are hung at their height so they could put away their own coats and bags when they walked through the door. ;]
In essence, a home designed in such a way that if a child asked if they could help do something, anything, (May I sweep the floor? May I unload the dishwasher? Can I help you make the pancakes?) they could be answered with an unequivocal and resounding 'Yes! You Can! Thank you so much for offering!'
Part of my plan in trying to make this a reality in our home is not only to reorganize where I put certain things, but also what sorts of things we fill our home with.
Namely, I am dying to start getting them the tools they need, in the size they need, to succeed at whatever task they wish to tackle, be it cooking, cleaning, gardening, what have you!
Like these beauties below. These are real cleaning tools...child sized! Drooool. <3333
Seriously, you should definitely check out this entire website (I'm not an affiliate or being paid to say that, I just reaaaally love this store). All the fun, real tools they have for children are phenomenal!
Anyways, one of my many grand master plans is to get my children their own cleaning tools and buckets, and in those buckets to put the following (laminated) chore charts!
But, seeing as I don't have the money to do that just yet and don't have any pictures to show you what those buckets would look like... I decided for today, I'll just share with you the printables I made for these dream buckets instead.
=]
Aren't they cute?!! I'm kinda in love with them!!!
Anyways, feel free to download them by clicking the links below the images. You can also always find them later down the road by clicking on the Our Scribbled Walls Freebies page.
(These chore charts were made with royalty free public domain images, as well as some borders and banners by Su Smith. As usual, these are for personal use only, not for resale, nor are these files to be hosted on any other website. If you'd like to share these with your friends, be sure to link back to Our Scribbled Walls for credit and for download access =].)
So anyways, there you have it! Some Pre-School 'Life Skills Unit' Inspired Cleaning Charts. ;] If that ain't just a mouthful!
What are some things you've done around your home to make it a happier place to be? There are so many ways to make our homes into peaceful and enjoyable places! I'd love to hear your pearls of wisdom! =]
What are some things you've done around your home to make it a happier place to be? There are so many ways to make our homes into peaceful and enjoyable places! I'd love to hear your pearls of wisdom! =]
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