“But what about quality control?” you may be asking. “When do we
start worrying about the end results? We don’t want unswept dust piles in
the garage forever, do we?” The quality of learning improves with
practice, encouragement, and modeling. Say, “Gee, Tyler, you really
know how to sweep. Isn’t it fun to do a good job? Watch how I use the
broom and get all of the dirt.” This gives the child a good model to copy.
Like Dad, Tyler wants to do a good job and feel good about it too.
When children are small, we can teach them a great combination:
getting the job done, fun, and me. We make sure that getting the job done
is fun. We model that. We never pass judgment on the work of children
when they are trying to learn. Rather, we say such things as:
• “I can see that you are working hard to learn to do long
division. Let me know if you would like some help.”
• “I see that you are learning to make the bed just like
Mommy. Would you like me to show you how I get the
wrinkles out?”Whenever possible, we slip a little fun in the task. When Foster’s
children were small and he did the dishes with them, he encouraged them
to imagine the unhappiness of the germs on the dishes as they rinsed
them off before putting them into the dishwasher. “What’s going on
here?” the germs would scream. “What’s that big rag doing? It’s wiping
me off the plate. Arrrrgghh!” Then, as the germs went down the garbage
disposal, they continued their dialogue: “What’s this big round room?
What’s going on in here? Hey, guys, it’s starting to spin. We’re all going
to get killed! Arrrgghh!” When his children were high school age, they
were still imagining the germs screaming and dying.
It would have been easy to come down on them when they were little
for missing a spot here and there, but that would have spoiled the fun. As
our children grow up, we remove ourselves from the triad, and they are
left with the job and fun. Then we are elsewhere, having fun doing our
own jobs.