Ready, SET the table!

Photos by Sara Magnolia

One of the silver linings of this unique time has been getting the chance to slow down a bit and savor the extra time at home. But, I don’t know about you, that extra time at home has brought up plenty of emotions. My kitchen has been in a constant rotation of cook, clean, sanitize, and do it all over again...like a hundred times a day. SO, I used it as an opportunity to start talking to the girls about taking on new responsibilities that could help in our day-to-day routines. 

I’m not an expert in child psychology, but it felt like the right time for us to start asking the girls to pitch in a bit. We don’t call them ‘chores’ because who wants to do anything that feels like a chore?! Instead I started by joining them in an activity that felt like an age appropriate responsibility and slowly it became something they felt like experts in. For Emme, we worked on making her bed in the morning and helping to feed the dogs. I let her ‘design’ the stuffed animal and pillow formations and we talked about her ‘inspiration’.  It became a creative task that she felt really empowered by. A few days of this and now Emme makes her bed before she comes down for breakfast! Sailor is still a bit young for any heavy lifting, but she sees her sister pitching in and has been eager to take on a few ‘jobs’ of her own.  

One of the shared jobs that they have had fun with is learning to set the table. We made this fun by starting with the foundation. I mean, literally the foundation. I enlisted the help of my older nieces, Gabby and Ava, and together we made customized placemats for each member of the family. 

We used some leftover scraps of ribbon, iron on patches, some fabric glue for the little ones, and the hot glue gun when we needed to really nail something down. And I can’t believe how cute they turned out!

With our foundation in place it made it so easy to teach the girls the placement of the utensils and they were so proud of the details that were special to each member of the family.  Now that they have the pattern perfected, it truly has made dinner time so much easier. 

I know that we don’t always have the time (and energy) to make a meal (pun intended!) of every new task and responsibility we ask our kids to take on. But it’s amazing how that little extra step in the beginning can really be a game changer in how they approach it moving forward! 

Xx, 
Jo