I was thinking recently about things that Rachel likes to do to help around the house. We've been capitalizing on our "slave labour" as we like to call it, especially since Rachel enjoys it! Here are some tasks she helps with on a regular basis:
*Setting the table: If I get the plates and cups down, Rachel will carry them one by one and set them at our respective places. She can also get the correct cutlery out of the drawers by herself and put them roughly where they should go. She likes to carry over condiments and anything else that's not too heavy to carry! And yes, we do let her carry our china by herself. So far nothing has broken. I still hold the record for most broken dishes in our house.
*Clearing the table: Rachel usually remembers to clear her place, and she will often help out by taking our plates over to the counter as well. Every once in awhile she decides to carry things over and dump them directly in the sink if one of us has started the dishes already. Hehe. She is also pretty good at throwing out any garbage from the plates and wiping her hands & face after meals.
*Getting her own snacks and breakfast: Rachel can open the fridge and help herself to cheese or yogurt fairly easily. She can also get out fruit. I've recently had her opening the pantry and getting her cereal off of the bottom shelf since I don't like to bend down these days! (Funny quote from Rachel when we were discussing how I'd have more energy to play and run around after the baby comes out: "And Mom, you'll be able to bend down too!")
*Stripping and making beds: Rachel loves helping Ben with this. She helps smooth out the sheets, place the pillows, pull up the covers, etc, etc. I think that she also enjoys tossing all of her elephants on the floor in order to get to her sheets!
*Laundry: If she's in the right mood, Rachel enjoys putting things in the washing machine, helping to pour the detergent, and most of all, pressing the start button to get the wash cycle going. She also likes to sort laundry and help put it away, especially when it involves her precious elephant clothing being clean and ready to wear again!
*Vacuuming: Ok, she doesn't really help with this, but she thinks she does. She gets out her own "vacuum" (usually a scarf) and follows Ben around as he vacuums. She does help pick things up off the floor in preparation for vaccuming though! And yesterday she told me that she was supervising Daddy.
*Grocery shopping: If I send Ben to the store, Rachel almost always goes along with him. He doesn't even need a list if she goes, because she can remember things very easily! Favourite shopping quote from Rachel: "We can't let Daddy go by himself because he buys green bananas and moldy raspberries!" (I may have suggested to her that it would be helpful if she went since she could help Dad pick out the good stuff. Hehe.)
*Not really housework: Since I've become less mobile with this pregnancy (We are not even going to discuss the fact that I'm not dilated even a tiny bit and the baby hasn't fully dropped. Apparently I'm doomed to another 33 days of pain.), Rachel has had to accept that she really *can* get her own shoes/boots on and off. Ben helps her on occasion, but we've been pushing her to do it by herself and she's quite proud of herself when she does it. This may not seem big to some of you, but Rachel is the kind of kid who will quite happily let other people dress her and not even make an effort to do it herself. Lately, she has also been very good at undressing herself and even getting dressed some mornings.
*Intellectual stuff: Rachel scares us sometimes with how much she knows! She's known her alphabet and basic numbers for over a couple of years now, but she recognizes a lot more words than I would have thought. There was a story in her new magazine about an owl named Olive. Rachel thought it said "Oliver" because she has a book named "Oliver" about an elephant. She also frequently asked me what something spells, whether it's in a book, on the computer, or something I've said: "Mom, what does p-u-d-d-i-n-g spell?", "Mom, why is there an 's' on elephant?", "Mom, what does r-a-s-c-a-l spell?" (the last one is from a Kindermusik book featuring a monkey named Rascal.)
Every once in awhile I wonder if I should be teaching her more about sounding out words, but she does know the sounds that all the letters make so I'm not going to worry too much about it!
Rachel likes to play with numbers and is learning to tell time pretty well on a digital clock. Thanks to Aunt Rebecca, she does have a conventional clock as well (with an elephant in it!), but we haven't worried about teaching her to tell time on it yet. The only time we have issues with her reading the digital clock wrong is when she randomly decides to read it Hebrew-style.
She also knows her entire Hebrew alphabet, both to recite and to recognize the letters on paper. She likes to tell us how the 4-year-olds at preschool learn their alef-bet. Hehe. It doesn't bother her that she doesn't get to do alef-bet at school, probably because one of the teachers takes the 3-year-olds to do special art projects at that time. Rachel is happiest when she's reading or doing art projects. (well, ok, she is probably happiest when surrounded by elephants, but reading and art come in a close second!)
Rachel also loves to tell stories. They are often very creative and elaborate stories that involve all kinds of characters. She's quite expressive and could talk your ear off for hours with the stories she tells!
I'm sure I'll think of more things later, but that's quite enough rambling for one post!
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