I'd have killed for a cell phone to keep track of friends in the summer when I was your girls' ages. Only one of my best friends lived close enough to see each other a lot because we could ride our bikes back and forth. One of my other best friends and I were separated by only a couple of miles but cornfields and multiple train tracks were a mighty deterent to seeing each other unless it was totally an arranged visit.
I don't recall having daily assignments of chores but we definitely had chores. I think Mom had a calendar that said who was doing what for a week at a time, like washing/drying dishes, vacuuming, etc. The biggest arguments over chores was with my sister over who dried and who washed the dishes. Guess Mom figured we needed to make at least some small decisions, which didn't go well all the time. Nothing stings as much as a dish towel snapping against your arm or leg but that didn't stop us from arguing. Doing that chore "in active combat" describes us perfectly!
About every 1-3 years my family moved to another city as my dad was climbing the parochial school education ladder. Mom rarely worked until I hit my teen years, so the money she earned went towards an actual vacation. From ages 8 - 12 my dad ran summer camps in the mountains of North Carolina. As far as I was concerned those were the best summer vacations ever. It meant no traveling and no museums, relatives, or long car rides. I think your daughters would agree that living at summer camp all summer would be heaven. I could sleep are long as I wanted and I had no chores! Dad and Mom had one rule: I had to live in a cabin with other girls for one week out of the summer. I thought I'd die as I had to be regimented like everyone else! I have the best and most vivid memories of those 4 summers over any others during my childhood, especially the morning I woke up in my cabin, rolled over and was face to face with a curious bear with only a screen between us.
Back to the money Mom earned for vacations. I remember we went to the New York City World's fair in 1964. it was a wonderful experience except that I had to dress nicely(that's what people did on vacations in the 60's). My older brother and I were not allowed to fight or we would have to hold Mom's hand until she felt we had been punished enough. Horror's! No one wants to hold Mom's hand when you're not a little kid anymore. The only thing I truly remember about the Worlds Fair is that when I went to Disneyland when I was in college it seems that the majority of the rides and attractions had ended up there. I enjoyed Disneyland but the rides disappointed me as I had ridden most of them already at the fair. BTW, It's a Small World made it's debut at the fair and my mother was delighted to see it again at Disneyland.
Your summer camp experience sounds amazing. There's a whole genre of movies where families go off to camps like that for the whole summer, usually in one of the eastern states. My kids would indeed have loved to have that experience - as long as there was wi-fi.
I can see your children do some free time antics similar to mine (current and from few years ago), while about some other I wouldn't even think of.
There's no force in this world that would make me willingly wake up early on a free day. Not even the possibility to have a couple of uninterupted hours of watching YT or gaming. Sleeping long is too tempting. But I need to keep it balanced, as my mum doesn't like anybody laying unproductive in bed.
During holidays, all meals in our house are self-service, except for dinner. This means someone's busy in the kitchen for most part of the day, which derails the "weekly kitchen cleaning duty" and each free period brings new negotiations of who's cleaning what and when it'll be done. When it was first applied, I've discovered that sole slice of bread isn't always the best of breakfasts (especially when it's not fresh). The only time it tastes wonderfully is when few years ago I wanted to (partially successfully) prove my mum I can withstand all day on "dungeon diet".
With my siblings we also did have the written list of things to do and procrastination was always present, too. But after some tough experiences we nowadays picked our pace in exchange for smaller and oral list of chores to do.
My dysgraphia too improved my grades a couple of times, on one occasion when I had to translate what I've written to a teacher, I used this as an opportunity to correct many mistakes when decoding.
Finally, I agree with your stance on YouTube - I wouldn't say it better.
I like the idea of having all meals being self-service. We're slowly trending in that direction. Eventually, my kids will learn to go to the grocery store by themselves and my roll as a parent will be complete.
That is a Very cute commercial for your book! I love when the money question stumps Waffle, and Lucy’s job is pterodactyl attacks; Mae’s sudden realization she could sell oranges and Becky’s *thump* as she lands😁 Great job girls!
My mom wrote out chore lists every day of my life from age 10 til I left the house after college.
EVERY WEEK-DAY all 3 of us kids had lists with at least 5 things we had to accomplish between 3:30 and 5:30 (an arbitrary time picked by my mom to making it harder to get outside😠) We HATED those lists with a passion! There were, of course, punishments if not done by the end time. I WILL say that mom gave a us a cooling off period of a half an hour to do whatever we wanted once we got home from school at 3, tho. Which was moderately decent of her.
Me-clean, sister-messy that cannot be described, brother-inbetween.
But the lists weren’t just for our stuff they were for the whole house—rug sweep, floor sweep, dusting in the public rooms, cleaning different parts of the bathroom, table setting and clearing, dishwashing etc.
Your kids are adorable pterodactyls! And it's pretty obvious that Betsy is growing up - she's lost that 'little girl' look and is developing into a lovely young woman. Enjoy the teenage years :)
I received my autographed copy of You Can’t be a Pterodactyl! On Wednesday (or Thursday- the days go by so far while the minutes never seem to end). What a great book- perfectly illustrated! The intent was to give to one of the grands... now I think I’ll keep it and buy them their own copy. Thanks for spending your ‘free’ time signing copies.
I'd have killed for a cell phone to keep track of friends in the summer when I was your girls' ages. Only one of my best friends lived close enough to see each other a lot because we could ride our bikes back and forth. One of my other best friends and I were separated by only a couple of miles but cornfields and multiple train tracks were a mighty deterent to seeing each other unless it was totally an arranged visit.
I don't recall having daily assignments of chores but we definitely had chores. I think Mom had a calendar that said who was doing what for a week at a time, like washing/drying dishes, vacuuming, etc. The biggest arguments over chores was with my sister over who dried and who washed the dishes. Guess Mom figured we needed to make at least some small decisions, which didn't go well all the time. Nothing stings as much as a dish towel snapping against your arm or leg but that didn't stop us from arguing. Doing that chore "in active combat" describes us perfectly!
My kids don't know how to snap a dish towel yet. I hope they never find out.
About every 1-3 years my family moved to another city as my dad was climbing the parochial school education ladder. Mom rarely worked until I hit my teen years, so the money she earned went towards an actual vacation. From ages 8 - 12 my dad ran summer camps in the mountains of North Carolina. As far as I was concerned those were the best summer vacations ever. It meant no traveling and no museums, relatives, or long car rides. I think your daughters would agree that living at summer camp all summer would be heaven. I could sleep are long as I wanted and I had no chores! Dad and Mom had one rule: I had to live in a cabin with other girls for one week out of the summer. I thought I'd die as I had to be regimented like everyone else! I have the best and most vivid memories of those 4 summers over any others during my childhood, especially the morning I woke up in my cabin, rolled over and was face to face with a curious bear with only a screen between us.
Back to the money Mom earned for vacations. I remember we went to the New York City World's fair in 1964. it was a wonderful experience except that I had to dress nicely(that's what people did on vacations in the 60's). My older brother and I were not allowed to fight or we would have to hold Mom's hand until she felt we had been punished enough. Horror's! No one wants to hold Mom's hand when you're not a little kid anymore. The only thing I truly remember about the Worlds Fair is that when I went to Disneyland when I was in college it seems that the majority of the rides and attractions had ended up there. I enjoyed Disneyland but the rides disappointed me as I had ridden most of them already at the fair. BTW, It's a Small World made it's debut at the fair and my mother was delighted to see it again at Disneyland.
Your summer camp experience sounds amazing. There's a whole genre of movies where families go off to camps like that for the whole summer, usually in one of the eastern states. My kids would indeed have loved to have that experience - as long as there was wi-fi.
Ptremendous book ad!
I can see your children do some free time antics similar to mine (current and from few years ago), while about some other I wouldn't even think of.
There's no force in this world that would make me willingly wake up early on a free day. Not even the possibility to have a couple of uninterupted hours of watching YT or gaming. Sleeping long is too tempting. But I need to keep it balanced, as my mum doesn't like anybody laying unproductive in bed.
During holidays, all meals in our house are self-service, except for dinner. This means someone's busy in the kitchen for most part of the day, which derails the "weekly kitchen cleaning duty" and each free period brings new negotiations of who's cleaning what and when it'll be done. When it was first applied, I've discovered that sole slice of bread isn't always the best of breakfasts (especially when it's not fresh). The only time it tastes wonderfully is when few years ago I wanted to (partially successfully) prove my mum I can withstand all day on "dungeon diet".
With my siblings we also did have the written list of things to do and procrastination was always present, too. But after some tough experiences we nowadays picked our pace in exchange for smaller and oral list of chores to do.
My dysgraphia too improved my grades a couple of times, on one occasion when I had to translate what I've written to a teacher, I used this as an opportunity to correct many mistakes when decoding.
Finally, I agree with your stance on YouTube - I wouldn't say it better.
I like the idea of having all meals being self-service. We're slowly trending in that direction. Eventually, my kids will learn to go to the grocery store by themselves and my roll as a parent will be complete.
That is a Very cute commercial for your book! I love when the money question stumps Waffle, and Lucy’s job is pterodactyl attacks; Mae’s sudden realization she could sell oranges and Becky’s *thump* as she lands😁 Great job girls!
My mom wrote out chore lists every day of my life from age 10 til I left the house after college.
EVERY WEEK-DAY all 3 of us kids had lists with at least 5 things we had to accomplish between 3:30 and 5:30 (an arbitrary time picked by my mom to making it harder to get outside😠) We HATED those lists with a passion! There were, of course, punishments if not done by the end time. I WILL say that mom gave a us a cooling off period of a half an hour to do whatever we wanted once we got home from school at 3, tho. Which was moderately decent of her.
With lists that thorough, you house must have been spotless. Either that or you were exceptionally messy kids.
Me-clean, sister-messy that cannot be described, brother-inbetween.
But the lists weren’t just for our stuff they were for the whole house—rug sweep, floor sweep, dusting in the public rooms, cleaning different parts of the bathroom, table setting and clearing, dishwashing etc.
And, yes, our house was clean🙄.
Your kids are adorable pterodactyls! And it's pretty obvious that Betsy is growing up - she's lost that 'little girl' look and is developing into a lovely young woman. Enjoy the teenage years :)
I received my autographed copy of You Can’t be a Pterodactyl! On Wednesday (or Thursday- the days go by so far while the minutes never seem to end). What a great book- perfectly illustrated! The intent was to give to one of the grands... now I think I’ll keep it and buy them their own copy. Thanks for spending your ‘free’ time signing copies.
That ad is adorable! Can’t wait to get my signed copies!
OH MY GOSH that ad is BRILLIANT!
I love that so much!