bright eyes + blue eyes

hamlet's blackberry

 

There are a lot of great things about the internet.

But there are also some not-so-great things.

One of the things I dislike about it is the potentially negative impact on family life.

Recently my mom told me about a book called Hamlet's Blackberry, by William Powers.

I checked it out from the library and really enjoyed it. The author's perspective was insightful. I found the very beginning of the book and the very end of the book to be the most helpful. I related to the desire to find "Walden" moments in my weekly life. Times of solitude and reflection. (with no screens involved.)

When Powers described his own family's method for striking the right "screen time" balance, I was intrigued.

Basically, in the Powers family, they unplug their modem each weekend. No emails. No surfing the web. Their modem is used during the week. Weekend time is for family.

I really like that idea & want to talk about it with Hunter. It'll be interesting to see what works for us in the coming years. Right now, it's fairly easy for us to strike a balance. Hunter & I are the only two who use screens. (Our kids don't use the internet yet, aren't involved in any kind of social media, don't IM yet, don't text yet, ...etc. etc.) When they DO get to that age, I want them to have FUN and enjoy connectivity...but I want to have some logical boundaries in place to help them find the right balance--as individuals and as members of our family.

Here's a passage from the book which relates to what I'm talking about:

The point isn't that the screen is bad. The screen is, in fact, very good. The point is the lack of proportion, the abandonment of all else, and the strange absent-present state of mind this compulsion produces. "Earth to loved one, are you there? No? Me, neither." We were living for the screen and through the screen, rather than for and through each other.

from page 224, chapter entitled "Disconnectopia"

In addition to Hamlet's Blackberry, I've noticed that the topic of screens & family keeps popping up in various places. Books, articles, academic analysis...I guess I'll continue gathering bits of information as I reflect on what works for our family now--as well as what might work well for us in the future.

 

A few words on yoga

I have been really into yoga recently. I’ve been taking at least one class a week since the beginning of the year. Here are some things that make me happy about yoga:

• I really like it when exercises have a right and a wrong way to execute the movements. Then you have to think and be very aware when you’re exercising. I love the ‘click’ moment, when you all of a sudden realize what it feels like to do a movement correctly.
• Speaking of doing things correctly… for a lot of the first classes I went to, I felt like I was able to jump right in to some of the advanced poses because I am very bendy, naturally. Now I am gradually realizing that I can’t do a lot of the poses correctly because I don’t have the strength yet. Better to modify and keep correct alignment while I gain strength. Doing the modified movements feels so much better than folding over and sticking my nose to my knees, just because I can.
• I appreciate that yoga is a “journey”. Some days I feel ambitious and courageous. Some days I feel like I need to take it slower and focus on fine tuning what I’ve got. I really like that a yoga class can take on so many different moods and shades, depending on who you are when you arrive at class. I like the long-term view, too. If you can’t do a movement now, keep at it, and you’ll be able to do it eventually. I’ve seen myself make little landmark achievements in being able to do new things. I like the idea that I could spend years doing yoga and still be learning.
• I *love* the energized, relaxed sensation at the end of a good class. You always end the class with ‘shavasana’, where you lie on your mat and relax everything in your body. My favorite things to relax are my facial muscles, especially the space between my eyes and my tongue. Seriously, try it sometime when you want to relax. Take some deep breaths and then relax your tongue and you’ll feel the tension vanish.

I remember Abbie saying something over Christmas about me being a natural born yoga girl, and I’d never thought of it that way. I’m glad that I have found my way to it now.

Back On the Tracks

I’ve been conducting interviews with parents around the UK for work. Some interviews I do over the phone, but if the family would prefer to do the interview face-to-face, then I go out to the family’s home. Planning these day-trips for the interviews has been a boon for my English geography awareness. There are so many beautiful places to see here (and some less attractive parts, too, for the record). A train ride that dipped through Yorkshire really surprised me with that region’s beauty. I could stare out of a train window for hours. I wish a had a lovely train-ride landscape picture to share with you, but those pictures are hard to take. So here’s a (relatively) stationary memento from my journeys. These LED boards aren’t as romantic as the old-timey kinds that flip over, but they’re a lot easier to read.

Multidimensional Poverty Index

I’ve been writing a lot recently, just not for the blog. I don’t know if anyone is interested in reading about some of the stuff I’ve been thinking about, academically. I bet not. But in the off chance that  someone out there has a bit of extra reading time on your hands and you’re interested in how poverty is defined and measured, I’m going to post part of an essay that I wrote for a class last semester. I think that learning about the different concepts of poverty is really interesting, and the idea of multidimensional poverty really resonates with me. Poverty is about way more than not having cash in-hand. And if you have even more time and interest after reading this essay, check out the homepage of the Multidimensional Poverty Index. They have some really thought-provoking charts, etc.

 

The Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Research Proposal

Poverty reduction has been a primary social concern for centuries. Yet a fundamental question within the field of poverty alleviation has not been answered conclusively: Who is poor? The answer to this question underpins many aspects of global poverty reduction. Poverty must be defined before it can be measured, much less combated effectively.

Poverty is a knotty and complex phenomenon, and techniques to measure it have evolved over time. Advances in poverty measurement generate helpful insights into its causes and effects. In June 2010, a new poverty measurement index was launched. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) uses internationally comparable data, and it has been well-received because of its holistic and flexible understanding of poverty (Kapur, 2010; Kenny, 2010; The Economist, 2010; The Lancet, 2010). [...] Prior to elaborating on this project’s methods and aims, it is necessary to provide context about the historical landscape of poverty measurement.

Context & Theoretical Background

Systematic poverty measurement dates back to the late 1800s, when pioneering social scientists, such as Charles Booth and Paul Kellogg, began conducting and publishing surveys of urban poverty (Bales, 1999; O'Connor, 2001). Since those early days of poverty research, certain definitions of poverty have become favoured by activists and policy-makers alike. For example, income poverty measures are now a linchpin in discussions about how to fight poverty. Other common definitions of poverty rely on measuring similarly quantifiable aspects of deprivation, such as calorie intake or household expenditure. Such definitions of poverty are useful in tracking prevalence and setting policy thresholds. They are also compelling because they do not require extensive interpretation; it is straightforward to grasp the concept of extreme poverty as living on less than $1.25 a day (Barrientos, 2010). Nevertheless, these standardized definitions of poverty are criticized as reductionist and blunt measurement tools. Increasingly, it is recognised that hunger in the stomach or lack of cash in the pocket are just two of the countless experiences of being poor (Chambers, 2007; Saith, 2005). In light of the shortcomings of traditional poverty measurements, new methods have emerged, such as the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).

The creation of the MPI was guided by the capability approach, a theory developed by Amartya Sen. The capability approach asserts that the ultimate goal of poverty alleviation work should be to equalise people’s capability to pursue “the various things a person may value doing or being” (Alkire, 2003: 5; Sen, 1999). These are termed functionings, and they capture activities such as doing trade or being educated. A person’s functionings are determined by their freedom, which is their true opportunity to act on their values and achieve their personal aims (Alkire, 2003). Stated another way, freedom is the true capacity to choose one activity or state of being over another. The capability approach presents a pluralistic view insofar as it maintains that wellbeing and welfare can be understood differently around the world. Of course, some fundamentals such as the importance of clean water are universal, but the theory makes space for value-driven functionings, like self-esteem or contentment, which may be perceived very differently from culture to culture (Alkire, 2003). Sen’s ontological basis of positional objectivity has prompted academics to explore new ways of defining and measuring poverty (Giri, 2000; Sen, 1993). It has motivated research to move beyond assessing one dimension of poverty at a time. Instead, poverty researchers have begun to design measures that can account for several aspects of poverty simultaneously. Multidimensional poverty instruments do not claim to present an all-encompassing authoritative definition of poverty, but they do provide supple definitions of poverty, which are full of layers of meaning and often incorporate subjective indicators (Kakwani and Silber, 2007).

Multidimensional Poverty Index

The MPI was developed at the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI). It is based on Sabina Alkire and James Foster’s technique to analyse micro-data by constructing binary matrices to represent individual/household deprivation scores across a set of variables (Alkire and Santos, 2010). The analytical procedures behind the MPI allow it to account for the structure and intensity of poverty, as well as accommodating a range of data types (Alkire and Foster, in press). A succinct overview of the MPI can be given by focusing on its data sources, dimensions and dissemination.

Data

OPHI compiled data from publicly available datasets for 104 low- and middle-income countries. The following three surveys provided the data used in the MPI:

· Demographic and Health Surveys – conducted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

· Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys – conducted by UNICEF

· World Health Surveys – conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO)

Each survey uses probability samples, and data is collected at the individual and/or household level. Most surveys are conducted face-to-face, but telephone and computer-assisted interviews are also used when appropriate (WHO, 2002a).

The child mortality variables contain the data that is most relevant to this study. All three of the surveys include modules regarding child mortality. Questions about child mortality are asked both directly and indirectly. Examples of the child mortality survey questions can be seen in Appendix A. The MPI designates a survey respondent ‘deprived’ in the area of child mortality if (s)he reports the death of at least one child in the household (Alkire and Santos, 2010; USAID, 2010a; USAID, 2010b; UNICEF, 2006; WHO, 2002a; WHO, 2002b). This research project will focus on analysing the child mortality variables in the MPI datasets.

Dimensions

The selection of dimensions for the MPI was driven primarily by theoretical considerations and data availability. Comparability was also a central concern, in terms of being able to compare across nations as well as maintaining continuity with previous efforts at assessing poverty. Sen’s capability approach served as a theoretical basis from which possible dimensions were evaluated. The capability approach suggested that choosing indicators was not purely an empirical exercise; decisions would inevitably incorporate value judgments. OPHI researchers accepted that any index would be a flawed reflection of true poverty, despite its aims to portray poverty accurately (Alkire 2007; Alkire and Santos, 2010). From a more practical standpoint, limitations were imposed by the types of survey data available to measure a given dimension of poverty. This was particularly restrictive, given that data needed to be available for each of the 104 countries in the analysis. OPHI researchers also sought out dimensions that would align with existing international frameworks such as the Millennium Development Goals (Alkire and Santos, 2010). Figure 1 shows the three dimensions and ten indicators that are included in the MPI. The three dimensions of health, education and living standard are shown in shaded boxes across the top of the chart, with indicators shown beneath each respective dimension. In the MPI, the nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling and children enrolled indicators are weighted at one-sixth, with the remaining indicators receiving a weight of one-eighteenth.

Figure 1: The MPI’s Dimensions & Indicators

(Adapted from UNDP, 2010: 106)

Dissemination

The MPI was incorporated into the 2010 Human Development Report, which is a seminal annual publication of the UN Development Programme (UNDP, 2010). The Human Development Report is a key document in the international aid industry and the fight against global poverty. It goes “beyond the analysis of the World Bank’s annual [publications] to provide a broad understanding of the issues and data required to address poverty” (Goldin, 2009: 368). The Human Development Report plays an important role in shaping the directions taken within the field of international development. The inclusion of the MPI in this influential report indicates that MPI results will be distributed widely.

…[I then go on to propose a research project to examine the robustness and validity of the MPI’s child mortality indicator]…

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Alkire, S. 2003. Valuing freedoms : Sen's capability approach and poverty reduction, New Delhi, Oxford University Press.

Alkire, S. 2007. Choosing dimensions: The capability approach and multidimensional poverty. CPRC Working Paper No.88. Manchester: Chronic Poverty Research Centre.

Alkire, S. 2010. Acute multidimensional poverty. Public lecture. 12 October 2010. University of Manchester, UK.

Alkire, S. & Foster, J. in press. Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement. Journal of Public Economics.

Alkire, S. & Santos, M. E. 2010. Acute multidimensional poverty: A new index for developing countries. OPHI Working Paper No.38. Oxford: Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative, Queen Elizabeth House.

Babbie, E. R. 2001. The practice of social research, Oxford, Oxford UP.

Bales, K. 1999. Popular reactions to sociological research: The case of Charles Booth. Sociology-the Journal of the British Sociological Association, 33, 153-168.

Barrientos, A. 2010. Measuring poverty: Key approaches and critical debates. MSc Class Lecture. 18 October 2010. University of Manchester, UK.

Black, R., Cousens, S., Johnson, H., Lawn, J., Rudan, I., Bassani, D., Jha, P., Campbell, H., Walker, C., Cibulskis, R., Eisele, T., Liu, L., Mathers, C. & Unicef, W. 2010. Global, regional, and national causes of child mortality in 2008: a systematic analysis. Lancet, 375, 1969-1987.

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Chernick, M. R. 2008. Bootstrap methods : a guide for practitioners and researchers, Hoboken, N.J., Wiley-Interscience.

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Homan, R. 1991. The ethics of social research, London, Longman.

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Kapur, A. Letter from India: Changing poverty’s parameters. The New York Times. 12 Aug 2010. [Online]. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/world/asia/13iht-letter.html [Accessed 06 Jan 2011].

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Lawn, J. E., Lee, A. C. C., Kinney, M., Sibley, L., Carlo, W. A., Paul, V. K., Pattinson, R. & Darmstadt, G. L. 2009. Two million intrapartum-related stillbirths and neonatal deaths: Where, why, and what can be done? International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, 107, S5-S19.

Moser, K. A., Leon, D. A. & Gwatkin, D. R. 2005. How does progress towards the child mortality millennium development goal affect inequalities between the poorest and least poor? Analysis of Demographic and Health Survey data. British Medical Journal, 331, 1180-1182.

O'Connor, A. 2001. Poverty knowledge : social science, social policy, and the poor in twentieth-century U.S. history, Princeton, N.J., Princeton UP.

Rajaratnam, J. K., Marcus, J. R., Flaxman, A. D., Wang, H. D., Levin-Rector, A., Dwyer, L., Costa, M., Lopez, A. D. & Murray, C. J. L. 2010. Neonatal, postneonatal, childhood, and under-5 mortality for 187 countries, 1970-2010: a systematic analysis of progress towards Millennium Development Goal 4. Lancet, 375, 1988-2008.

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he's back

Hunter's back home from Mexico. Hooray!

Here's what he brought for the kids.....

 

 

 

 

over the years : birthday celebrations

 I'm not much of an event planner. I'm not one of those people who gets a kick out of throwing a party. 

However, there is one exception to that rule.

I really enjoy planning children's birthday parties. 

There are so many fun ideas out there. Also, children are so easy to please. It's so much fun to celebrate my kiddos by doing a party theme that's right up their alley. 

Here are the parties we've had so far. All themes are a direct reflection on what he or she was interested in at that particular age.

* * * *

Superboy, Age 1 : Cupcakes & Tunnels

We had some friends (adults + children) come over to our flat. (We lived in Edinburgh at the time.) We had cupcakes & played with some plastic tunnels. Nothing like a one year old crawling through those flexible tunnels. (I don't know what those things are called exactly. But one-year-olds get a big kick out of them.)

Superboy, Age 2 : Family Party

My entire extended family was visiting us in Scotland at that particular time. (parents & sibs) Also, Pumpkin had just been born. She was about a month old when he turned 2. We had a great time eating cake and celebrating with family. 

Superboy, Age 3 : Bouncy Castle Party (combo with Pumpkin's 1st birthday party)

At that time, we lived very near the Strathpeffer Community Centre (Scottish Highlands). The Centre was very affordable to rent. We rented the rec room at the Centre, and they blew up the big bouncy castle for all the kids. It was so much fun. Superboy had a Thomas the Train cake.

Superboy, Age 4 : Bike Parade 

We had just moved back to American when he turned 4. We gathered at Gram & Papa's house with friends & cousins. We decorated our bikes in their cul-de-sac & then rode bikes down to the neighborhood park, where we had pizza and birthday cake to celebrate. It was a Spiderman cookie cake.

Superboy, Age 5 : Secret Agent Adventure

Hunter & I used gold spray painted to paint a bunch of rocks. We had the party at a local park. Right before the party, we hid the rocks gold all over the playground. As the main party activity, we gave the kids black secret agent hats & magnifying glasses. Their mission was to recover the stolen golden nuggets. After the gold was recovered, we ate cake & played at the park. The weather was so pretty that day. We had a blast.

Superboy, Age 6 : Superhero Party

Guests came to the party dressed as superheroes. We made Superhero Control Panels. After making the control panels, we were all playing out in the front yard, when suddenly a huge tree (across the street) fell down. Thor had to come to the rescue. 

Superboy, Age 7 : Pool Party

Lots of fun swimming! He chose a cake with a baseball theme. My favorite part of the party was watching the kids go off the high dive.

Superboy, Age 8 : Birthday Quest

This party was sort of a kids' version of the Amazing Race. We split everyone up into two teams. They raced around the house looking for clues. When they found a clue, the team would have to complete some sort of task in order to move on to the next station. We ended the party with a water balloon fight in the back yard. Here's the invitation. There was a "team assignment" card in each invitation.

 

 

 

* * * *

Pumpkin, Age 1 : Bouncy Castle Party (combo with Superboy's 3rd birthday party)

This was a combo birthday party at the Strathpeffer Community Centre. Benton & JB were visiting us at the time, so it was super fun that they could be there for the party. The bouncy castle was a big hit with all the kids.

Pumpkin, Age 2 : Family Party

We had just moved back to the States. We had a party with family friends at Gram & Papa's neighborhood park. I remember that Pumpkin wore a cute little green & white monogrammed dress that my mom bought for her. It's one of my favorite dresses from her toddler days.

Pumpkin, Age 3 : Baby Doll Party

We had this party at a park as well. All the guests brought their baby dolls and doll strollers. The little girls lined up one after the other and strolled their baby dolls all over the park. I'm here to tell you: a line of three-year-olds pushing baby strollers through a park is just about the cutest thing you'll ever see. We had cake & then played on the playground.

Pumpkin, Age 4 : Kitty Cat Party

We played a relay game that involved getting down on all fours and eating "kitty food" out of a bowl. (Kix cereal) We made kitty cat collars as the party activity. We had strawberry cake (her favorite cake flavor) and played on the swingset.

Pumpkin, Age 5 : Hula Party

The guests came to the party in swimsuits. We provided hula skirts. We used this awesome DVD: I Want To Be a Hula Dancer. The guests learned one hula dance by watching the DVD's step by step instructions. We made white chocolate shells using shell shaped candy molds.

Pumpkin, Age 6 : Tea Party

The guests came to the party in dress up clothes. We had a proper tea party at the dining room table. Hunter made chocolate covered strawberries the night before the party. We ordered some absolutely delicious petit fours from a nearby bakery. If you ever do a tea party birthday party, be sure to get sugar cubes. The sugar cubes were a big hit with the girls. 

 

 


* * * *

Plans for this year...

Celebrating 7 and 9:

Instead of having a party, Pumpkin would like to invite a friend to go to the American Girl Bistro for lunch (with both of their American Girl dolls, of course.) Hunter & I think that's a great idea and I look forward to it. This will be a much anticipated repeat of Hailey's birthday lunch last year (same idea: lunch with the dolls.) The main difference will be that this year, Pumpkin has her own doll, Elizabeth, whom she cannot wait to bring along! (Thank you Gingi & GPoppa!)

Superboy has mentioned that he'd like to bring a friend to one of those "dinner and a movie" places. The kind of place where you order dinner while you watch the movie. Sounds fun to me. I hope there's a good movie playing. Last year Toy Story 3 came out around Superboy's birthday. (That'll be hard to beat.) But hopefully there'll be at least ONE good option! 

* * * *

Pinterest Party Inspiration

Frequently, I see fun children's party ideas on the internet (esp on mommy blogs.) If it looks like a cute party, I tend to bookmark it just in case I ever need party inspiration. Recently, I started a pinterest board, which will make bookmarking parties SO much more fun. I like the idea of pinning a photo from the party to my pinterest board much more than simply bookmarking the post. Using Pinterest, I can easily sort my images into different categories. As someone who clips magazine images that "speak" to me, I find pinterest (so far) to be much easier than any sort of paper-based inspiration board. There are so many amazing ideas floating around out there in the blogosphere! 

 

Related: You may want to check out the post I published right before this one. It describes our family's birthday cupcake tradition, which our kids love. (and we do, too!)

* * * * 

A few more birthday party bookmarks to share before I sign off....

Super Epic Rainbow Party by Hula Seventy

A Princess in Pink by A Subtle Revelry

J's 5th Birthday Party by Shim & Sons

Lego Birthday Party by Living Locurto

Hiking Party by Blonde Designs Blog

* * * *

Happy Party Planning!

{Edited to add: Kelly's Korner is having a Link Party today. The topic is Kids' Birthday Parties. So far, there are 50+ links to birthday party posts. Really cute party ideas! Here's the post: Kelly's Korner - Kids' Birthday Parties}

 
 

over the years : birthday cupcakes

 
When Superboy was a toddler, Hunter and I talked a bit about what type of birthday traditions we wanted to start with our little family. One thing we both felt was that we wanted some element of excitement right when the birthday boy/girl first woke up in the morning. Sort of like on Christmas morning: you know that the minute you get up, you're about to jump feet first into celebration & excitement.

 

We decided that we'd have a "breakfast birthday cupcake" tradition with our kiddos. They would wake up & stumble into the dining room to find cupcakes on a plate. How many cupcakes? Same number as their new age. Usually we also have the same number of balloons tied to the birthday boy/girl's chair.

 
 
We always take a few pictures of the birthday child in front of the birthday cupcakes. I love these photos---love seeing my happy little still-sleepy-looking babies smiling proudly. We usually get them to hold up their new age for the picture. What pride they have in getting to display their new age for the very first time.

 

Last year for Pumpkin's birthday, we were at the beach. (Summer conference '10) Pumpkin's request was strawberry cupcakes (yummm!), and my sweet mother made a TON of strawberry cupcakes. Six for the birthday girl, of course, but also plenty for the college students. 

One of these days I'm going to do a dedicated scrapbook page for each child with all of the cupcake photos lined up in a row.

 

 
 

clair de lune : debussy

I really like this video clip.

Really like it.

Can't quite put my finger on why I like it so much.

If I had to guess:

I think it has something to do with the combination of visual and audio input received at the exact same time.

I think that the neural messages sent by my eyeballs and the neural messages sent by my ears somehow bump into each other in my brain. {let's put brain science on the shelf for a minute.} They bump into each other and smile. The messages pair off. They bow and curtsy to each other. Then they begin to dance.

I love this song.

Bravo, Claude Debussy. You composed this beautiful piece in 1893. Somehow, I think that in your brain, you "saw" the visual beauty of this piece as well. (I hope you did.) 

118 years later, here I am. Enjoying the beauty of Clair de Lune.

I think Debussy's Clair de Lune might be at the top of my want-to-be-able-to-play-this-on-the-piano list.

{Sidenote: friends, if you watch this clip, you might also have the urge to go to Vegas & visit the Bellagio Fountain. ha!}

 

small people who like to draw

My children have really been on a drawing kick lately. Which is great. I enjoy watching them put so much effort into translating ideas from their brains to ink-on-paper.  

There are lots of great things about all the drawing going on.

However. There's one downside.

I noticed, a few months ago, that they were leaving stacks of paper all over the house! A pile of drawings in the bedroom. A pile of drawings in the living room. A pile of drawings in the dining room.

I realized that we didn't really have a "system" for cleaning up the drawings.

When it comes to housekeeping, here is one thing I've learned over the years:

When there is an absence of a system, that basically means this: it all falls on mom.

Whose job is it to pick up and sort through the drawings? The artist.

Who was actually the one picking up and sorting through the drawings? The mom.

Basically, I found myself collecting their drawings & putting them in a stack in the sunroom.

Every week or so, I would flip through the drawings and recycle most of the stack. I would keep some of the ones that stood out to me.

The problem is, to them, EVERY DRAWING was very, very special. If they happened to see a few drawings in the recycle bin, they would flip.

Then we'd have to have a conversation about how we can't keep everything....yada yada.

But try as I might, that lesson was not sinking in very well, because the genesis of the conversation was always the shock and agony (!!) of finding a precious drawing in the recycle bin.

Not good.

One day I came to a very important realization: I am not doing them any favors.

Doing the clean-up work for them? Not doing them any favors.

Making the decisions about keep vs. throw away for them? Not doing them any favors.

I remembered my OWN soapbox about putting the decisions into their hands whenever possible. If it is something that my children CAN POSSIBLY do for themselves, then they should be doing it for themselves.

Part of life is to realize that you have to make decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of.

Part of learning about creativity is realizing that, often, you have to produce drafts of an idea before you finally get *it* to look the way you want it to look. (drawing, painting, photograph, writing....the list goes on.)

Subconsciously I'm sure I was thinking something along the lines of "They don't really like to make decisions about what to throw away. If I leave the choice to them, they'll just keep everything. Therefore I'll have to make those decisions for them."

Wrong.

Not doing them any favors.

They need to learn how to make those decisions on their own.

SO: here's what I came up with.

(This "solution" is probably so obvious to anyone reading this post. I'm sorry to say it took me a while to realize we needed a system like this.....)

 

I bought two plastic containers. One for him. One for her.

I sat them down & talked about how we can't keep everything in life. I told them that ALL their lives they would have to make decisions about getting rid of things. They need to start learning those lessons now.

I showed them the containers. I told them that ANY time they finish a drawing session (no matter where they are in the house), they must do four things

(1) Throw away (or recycle) trash. (paper cuttings, etc)

(2) Put blank, unused paper back in its place.

(3) Recycle any drawings that they don't need to keep.

(4) Store any "keeper" drawings in the plastic container.

I told them that this container is for 2011. They can put as many drawings in it as they want, as long as the lid still closes.

When it's full, it's full. That's it for 2011. You'll have to throw more away if you need more room.

OR: if you really, really want to, I'll let YOU buy a second plastic container with your allowance money.

{...Introducing the concept of storage units at a young age. Ha! It's the American way, right?}

So far, the "drawing boxes", as we now refer to them, have been a big hit. 

I think they've even come to enjoy having to make decisions about what to do with what they produce. Also, the drawing boxes have made them slow down and put more thought and detail into each drawing.

It'll be interesting to see how those boxes look at the end of the year....And also interesting to see if they're able to make it on ONE box per person!

 

 

 

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