Kids in the Kitchen

     The wonderful book, A Homeschool Mother's Rule, was so inspiring, but when I read it, I could not implement it because my children were so much younger than hers.
     But that has changed!
     All four older kids can do kitchen work now.  So now, we have 4 jobs, and they rotate the jobs every week.
1) washing the dishes
2) drying and putting away the dishes
3) clearing the counter and table of remaining items
4) spraying the kitchen table and counter

     They have stopped complaining about a job, since it is for a week; a group attitude has taken root, in which they accept whatever the job is, since it is not theirs for long.

     So I no longer clean up after any meal, on a good day!  Sometimes I'll help wash dishes if it is intense, but then 2 people dry and put them away, and it all goes very quickly.

     I cook in the morning, enough for 2 sit down meals at lunch and dinner.  Huge pot of stew with rice, 2 casseroles, 2 ovens' worth of roasted chicken and a huge salad.  I simply cannot believe the volume with which I am cooking now.  But if I put it together in the morning and let it cook before lunch, then I am done cooking and cleaning the kitchen for the rest of the day!  I LOVE IT!!

    I learned that from the monks at Christ in the Desert monastery.  I am SO grateful for their example!