Early on Saturday morning, the birds and I made a list of everything that we would do that weekend. We had chores that we had to get done, and we had things that we wanted to do for fun. Little Chirp loves to make a list of things and cross them off. I think that it gives him a sense of accomplishment and control at the same time.
For me as a mom, it is heart warming to see Little Chirp in charge of the “To Do” or the grocery list. The warm feeling is two fold. Seeing him with his little pen and paper in hand letting us all know what to do next or what to put in the grocery cart reminds me of the days that Brainy Bird was in charge of the list. There are some key differences. Brainy Bird started taking over the to do list and grocery list around age four. He seldom asked for help reading or writing on the list. His reading and writing was ahead of where Little Chirp’s is now at age 6. Brainy Bird was a strict enforcer of the list. If it was the grocery list, and it was not on the list then that meant we were not going to buy it. If it was the to do list, and an activity was not on the list then that meant we were not going to do it.
Little Chirp is a much more laid back list manager. If we are at the grocery store, and we want something that is not on the list, he simply adds it to the list. If it is an activity for the to do list, he will evaluate how much fun the task might potentially be, and in all likelihood add that to the list too.
Little Chirp always divides the to list of up into two columns, “fun” and “chores”. What cracked me up last Saturday was the organization of tasks between the two lists –
– Breakfast – I would have listed this in the “chore column” as I was thinking about the actual making of breakfast. Little Chirp felt that all meals, both preparation and consumption belong at the top of the fun list. The little bird loves to eat.
– Mopping – Again, this would definitely go under the chore column in my opinion. Little Chirp felt that this was super fun and insisted it belonged on the fun list.
– Bug zapping – We needed to put up the bug zappers in the backyard to hopefully reduce the little flying midge problem. Little Chirp’s eyes lit up at the idea of this.
“Bug zapping!!! That is going to be super fun!!!” He exclaimed.
If you look at the to do list that Little Chirp created, letters are backwards, many words are spelled so badly that they are hard to recognize. This is the extreme opposite of the grammatically perfect lists that Brainy Bird created at a much younger age. I think that the enthusiasm that Little Chirp creates the lists, and the energy and positive attitude the he puts forth in executing the tasks on the lists is what is going to make Little Chirp a great success some day; it certainly makes for a great Saturday morning in our present days.