What is a Kid Able Life???
Vicki/English vs English/Vicki: A life that is intelligent and workable for adults, but one that enables our prodigy to have success from the earliest age, teaching them independence and self-confidence without actual sit-down teaching; hence, helping a Kid (to be) Able on their own to learn and perform necessary Life skills.
Ever try to bake a cake with your prodigy? Mine started baking with me at about age 2-1/2 or 3. How is that even possible? you ask. Simple. Make the kitchen Kid Able. Let’s take one piece of baking a cake…measuring out the dry ingredients. Often when baking a cake, we use cake flour, which comes in a cereal-sized box. My 1-cup measuring cup doesn’t fit into the box, so to get an accurate measure, I have to make twice as many trips using a 1/2-cup…tougher still when it’s small-fry busy britches who is trying to do the measuring accurately.
Now the cake flour box has a quasi-large opening. How much more difficult is it to measure say, the salt? Now really. How difficult is it for you to measure out the salt…to maneuver that large, round cardboard salt container having that little metal funnel/bridge on the top? As an adult with all of your coordination skills fully developed…how frequently do you spill when you try to pour salt into a teeny weeny 1/4 or 1/2-teaspoon measuring device? Better yet…how difficult is it for you to simply get the little metal funnel/bridge thingie open? My hand doesn’t even fit all the way around that large, round cardboard salt container. Okay – show of hands…how many of us end up spilling salt on the counter when we try to measure it out (or worse, into the bowl with the other cake ingredients because we are dumb enough to measure over the bowl instead of the counter?
If you have difficulty doing this seemingly simple task correctly – ask yourself, how can your wee prodigy do it correctly when they don’t have fully-developed coordination skills, little hands, and are probably standing on a chair to reach the countertop? Isn’t this kind of like, oh I don’t know, a circus contortion trick for little ones?
My Answer: Make it kid-able. First, obtain a wide-opening flat plastic storage container that has a seal-tight lid (I don’t want to get into a trademark war with the “Tupper” or “Steri” people, so I’m refraining from using their brand names). Anyway – find yourself some of those plastic containers. You can usually find them really inexpensively at the dollar stores (or if you can find some that aren’t all sticky at a thrift shop – better and better…that’s what hot water, bleach or dishwashers are good for; cleaning up thrift shop finds). Now, empty the salt (or the flour, or the baking soda) into your new container…better yet – let your crumb cruncher do it…they are helping!!! I usually go one step further with the flours…I empty them into a gallon-size zip-closed plastic bag first to help keep it fresher longer…but that’s just me.
Okay – so now you’re asking me, “What’s the point? It’s still a large salt container?” Yes, it is still large, probably round or oblong, and it is a salt container. But this is where the similarities end and a KidAble LIFE!!! begins. This new container allows the salt (flour, etc.) to be scooped from the container which remains firmly on the counter (or table or floor – see pictures). Once your prodigy have developed higher coordination skills, you can teach them to level off the measuring spoon/cup and push the salt back into the plastic container without spilling because the plastic container has a really, really wide opening.
Let’s add on one more KidAble LIFE!!! opportunity in our container principle.
Prodigy learn really, really quickly how to associate a picture with its real-life counterpart. I mean come on…we show them story books with pictures from the time they pop out; showing and telling them what a bunny is, a truck, a ball. They can learn very young to associate the picture of a bunny with the little fuzzball hopping across the yard. They can do the same thing with salt if we use a picture. Simply cut the picture of the sweet little girl holding the umbrella off of the cardboard salt container and (using rubber cement) glue it to the side of your new plastic salt container. Your prodigy will quickly learn to associate the girl holding the umbrella with the word “salt” until they can read. This improved KidAble LIFE!!! plastic salt container can be kept in the pantry or in the cabinet at a level low enough that your prodigy can actually go and get it, and toddle it back to you all by themselves when you are going to bake a cake together. You pop your prodigy on a stool (or better yet, bring their kiddie picnic table in from the patio and then you work at their level also)… you take the lid off the plastic container (or don’t fill it too full, put it on the floor and show them how to do it [might want to loosen it for the really young prodigy])…anyway, get the lid off, and let them measure (and when they’re a little more coordinated) level away. Watch and applaud their success as all the excess salt stays off the counter or table or floor and only 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoonful goes into the cake batter.
How empowered and capable did your young prodigy feel as a result of this huge success? What joy do you feel when you see that look of triumph on the shining face of your prodigy? Why is my world built to be a KidAble LIFE!!!? Do you even have to ask? Nuff said.
There’s a million ways to apply the philosophy of a KidAble LIFE!!! The only limitations are those imposed by the adult ego…yes, I said that right…the adult ego is what limits us. It’s sometimes hard for us to let go of our need to feel superior to someone and I will be honest, it is humbling as an adult at first to establish and maintain a household around the changing needs of a KidAble LIFE!!! But hey – you probably already put those human-proof locks on everything when they were toddlers, and in my never-to-be-humble opinion, these KidAble LIFE!!! principles are waaaayyyy less humbling and not nearly as frustrating as those crazy things! And honestly…I’m addicted to the joy of their success. (..and I can NEVER get a doorknob to turn with those plastic covers on them…my hands are too small!) Besides, as prodigy mature, the KidAble LIFE!!! principles adapt. Once they can read, pictures aren’t necessary anymore. (as an aside… I actually taught my 2 year old how to sort clothes by putting cut-out pictures on laundry baskets…towels went in one bin, colors in another, reds in another, and whites in another still. We actually had fun sorting laundry together!!!)
If the mature adult in all of us can get past our own ego and realize the joy we feel when our prodigy succeeds…and actually allow ourselves to let it be their success and not take the credit for it…well, I know for me it’s totally worth every effort. Besides, let’s face it – the salt really is easier for me to measure from a wide-mouth plastic container, too!
More examples, pictures, etc. in the coming blogs and on other web pages. Look around. Ask me questions.
Thanks for reading. Hope this brought you a smile and, as always,
Vicki
I strive to lead a very principled life. After I had little people, I looked for ways to enable and ennoble them; teach them good principles in a fun way that would build their character and their sense of self-worth while also helping them learn that there are (good and bad) consequences in all things. I wanted them to learn how to look for the “good” in the world around them and then contribute to it. I figure we have one shot at this life…let’s live it to the fullest, laugh out loud at least 10 times a day, and look for ways to ease the burden of someone else. I still shake my head at the one family night we had where I gave them each a bag full of pebbles and told them I wanted them thrown at people during the week. Let me ‘splain…I first taught them that I was saying the word “rock”, but I was spelling it R-A-O-K…and that these letters were my acronym for Random Act of Kindness. I wanted them to empty the bag by giving (not literally throwing) a RAOK to each person they found that week to whom they could provide a kindness. I encouraged them to write down in a notebook/journal every day the stories of their RAOKs. I asked them to throw as many as they could and then bring their (hopefully empty) bag and their stories to the family meeting the next week. Each was asked to share as many stories with the rest of us as they wanted. The resulting RAOK throwing stories were amazing… helping a younger boy at school tie his shoes so he wouldn’t trip; whispering to a girl that her underpants were showing above her waistband so she wouldn’t be teased… the simplest things were SEEN and ACTED UPON.
Within the body of her email, there were no words of explanation, introduction to or qualifications for her choice of subject. She had simply pasted a link to Citizens Awareness Vanguard (CAV) blog. Curious, I followed the link to their blog post from 7/16/2013 which was captioned, “21 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity.” Because this post had had such a profound effect on my daughter to prompt her email to me, I scrolled through the 21 pictures that were posted.
A Kidable Life 