Best Idea, ever

Five weeks ago I dreamed up my best parenting idea ever.  This is one you're going to want to file away for later, because it is seriously the BOMB.

This summer I put my three oldest kids (ages 14, 12, 9) in charge of cooking AND cleaning up all the meals for the summer.  I put myself in charge of emptying the dishwasher, doing the grocery shopping, and supervising the 9 year old.  They each have a responsibility for one meal daily, both the cooking and cleaning of that meal.  We meal plan, as usual, at the beginning of each week.  I made a list of family favorites for each meal as a go-to, to help them come up with ideas, but they're free to branch out.

Purposes for this were two-fold:  I wanted them to learn to cook more things, and I wanted them to see how much of a mess they can make when they're cooking and learn to corral that a bit.

So far we've had a lot of schedule interruptions (like when two kids are gone for 5 days), during which times Mom fills in.  It's no big deal as I am used to cooking anyway.  I realized that I usually spend between 2-3 hours a day, AT LEAST working on food preparation/clean-up, so this frees up a little more of my time.  To do what, you might ask?  I honestly couldn't tell you because I feel as busy as ever, but I'm trying to read more - both to myself and to the little ones.

But when we are in sync with our schedule, it's been amazing.  I've been amazed at my kids' ability to just jump in and create something.  Several times a meal that I had planned to help with, because it was a new recipe, got made completely alone because I was pre-occupied with other things and they just went ahead and cooked without me.  Logan did this once at lunch time - his first time making grilled cheese completely alone.  Brynne did this with a recipe that was pretty much only in my head.  She asked me two questions, and then figured the rest out by herself, which included cooking quinoa without instructions and seasoning to taste.

The lessons that the kids are learning are tremendous, of course.  But the lesson that I'm learning is to TRUST my children and give them space to test their WINGS!


**Side benefit #1: with someone else cooking breakfast I have had more time for a walk and gospel study in the morning, without having to get up at the crack of dawn - save that for when school is in session.
**Side benefit #2: with someone else cleaning up dinner, I have more time to devote to a pleasant bedtime routine with the little girls, and we've been enjoying more songs and stories.
**Side benefit #3: Josh helps with either the dinner clean-up or the little ones bedtime, but either way, the kids enjoy the less-rushed time with their favorite person!