A Broom of
One's Own
Written By Catherine Newman
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It doesn't have to be a chore getting your kids to help out in the kitchen, in the garden, around the house. Here's how — and why.
My son has never leafed through "Martha Stewart Weddings." He doesn't care one whit that his newly invented "pinwheel rollups" are a commotion of cheese and tortilla rather than the dainty spirals one might imagine. All the boy cares about is that he's made a snack for himself and his little sister. "Ta da!"
Kids want to help — or can be made to want to, at least, with a bit of finagling on the part of savvy grown-ups. When I visit the Amherst Montessori School, just down the road from us, it's snack time there too, and the youngest preschoolers are studying bananas like rocket science. One tiny girl in dark pigtails tries to wrangle one out of its peel, and the naked fruit skids to the floor like an eel. She opens her hand, and her fingers are spackled with banana pulp. Once she gets it onto the cutting board, the banana's remains are sliced, mounded into a bowl, and devoured with relish.
