sundry and various

[castiron]

1. Four-year-old plus swift and ball winder: wow, he was interested in that for a lot longer than I'd have expected.  He wound about a hundred yards of yarn; I only had to rescue it from entanglement five times (from when he started winding in the opposite direction).  Overall, kept him occupied for a bit, and no harm done to the yarn (but don't try this with laceweight).

2. Highs are still in the 90s F/low 30s C, but we have nonetheless managed to get our first household cold of the season. Bleah.

3. Today's time sink:  Mean Fat Old Bat. Book review blog, mostly romances; first blog in a while that I've found so entertaining that I keep hitting "Older Posts".  Recommended.

4. Still gestating assiduously.  Approximately 75% through.  Still in denial about the fact that there will be a newborn in the house in December. Still hoping to take advantage of one local movie theater's Baby Day -- won't be the optimal environment for seeing Hobbit Part I, but beats not seeing it in the theater at all. (And if Ethelbert runs more than a week late, what better way to invoke Murphy's Law than by trying to see Hobbit in opening week?)

Comments

[sollers]

With my own offspring I got a useful insight into history and archaeology: never underestimate what very small children can accomplish. At about 3 my younger daughter only had to be shown when a given vegetable or fruit was ready to be picked and she could do it accurately, if slowly, at a Pick Your Own farm; even maize, which I find difficult to judge. In a hunter-gatherer society she would already have been a productive member of the group. Very small children will pick stones from a field for much longer periods of time than older children have the patience to do, and the same for a lot of tedious jobs. The insight was, very small children were productive workers; the slightly cynical thought derived was, to keep three and four years out of mischief, put them to work in the household. She was very good indeed at things like podding peas and polishing.

[castiron]

Interesting! I've read about Andean kids starting to learn to spin at age 2-3; they weren't making really *good* yarn/thread until they were a few years older, but they were producing usable yarn at an early age. (Sadly, YS's interest in spinning ends at grabbing the thread to stop the spin of the spindle.)

[antisoppist]

A friend advised me to plan things to do during the days past my due date for much the same reason.

My five year-old would love a ball winder. I wonder what my mother has done with hers. She is also very good at shelling peas and picking blackberries and delights in wandering round the house with a spray bottle of kitchen cleaner and a damp cloth.

My mum's theory is that as soon as they get old enough to be good at things, they stop being interested in doing them, but I think that is overly pessimistic.

[castiron]

First two kids showed up before their due dates, so we'll see whether this one follows the pattern or decides "hey, I like it in here, and I still want to try for Mayan Calendar Reset Birthday".

Younger son has been very good at wiping up his own spills since he was about two; an adult still has to get the last little bit, but he does the bulk of the work.

I recall enjoying household tasks that I didn't *have* to do, but hating the ones that were my expected chores -- I'd still rather clean toilets than wash dishes.