Friday, December 4, 2009

Jedi in Training

With two older brothers who are Star Wars fans, I suppose it was only a matter of time until Tobin picked up a light saber and joined the madness fun.
He makes me laugh... :)

5 comments:

Sally said...

He does so well standing up! This is really great!

Davene, how to you keep your floors so clear and uncluttered? Mine are so littered with toys practically all the time, despite my best efforts. I'm trying to figure out a solution--even perhaps purging the toy collection.

JFisher777 said...

I think the correct way of saying it is "Padawan"...Josiah should let you know.
Jedi Padawan/Apprentice: A Youngling that successfully completes their respective level of training undergoes Padawan apprentice training under the tutelage of a Jedi Knight or Jedi Master. As a rite of passage and the final test before the trials to knighthood, Padawans must build their own lightsabers. In the Old Republic, padawans with hair on their heads usually wore a braid on the right side of their head in their hair that were removed upon attaining knighthood

Davene said...

Padawan! I knew there was a real word for it, and I thought it started with "p," but I was too tired/lazy to look it up. Thanks for the info. :)

We'll have to start letting his hair grow so he can have a braid. Can you tell his barber we won't be needing his services for a while? ;)

Sally said...

This is really funny! The day your little ones have braids...there'll probably be more than snow falling!

Davene said...

Sally, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond about the neat floors.

First, I'm honored that you think they're neat! :) They are certainly not always that picked up. It's all a matter of timing; in this video, the boys hadn't been around long enough to get out a bunch of toys and take all the cushions off the couch to make forts, etc. So the floor looked neat! :)

Second, here is one thing that REALLY helped me in this way. FlyLady has something called a Room Rescue, in which you set your timer for 5 minutes or so, and go through a room, picking up and putting away all the stuff that is laying around. It's a quick once-over, not a deep clean; but it works wonders in the appearance of a room! Although there are many aspects of FlyLady's plan that I still struggle to put into practice, this is one that I have somehow been successful with--and I involve Josiah and David. They know that, if the next thing on the agenda is afternoon quiet time or bedtime at night, it's time for a Room Rescue in the living room. Sometimes I literally get out the timer and we race to see how fast we can do it; but most of the time now, they just know what to expect so they do it without the motivation of the timer. I am SO GRATEFUL that somehow, we've been able to make this a habit for them so that they don't even fuss about it (most of the time).

Third, I make sure that there are storage spaces for the toys that are easy for the boys to access. We have four baskets on the bottom shelf of the big bookcase in that room, and it's super easy for Josiah and David to toss the toys in there. And, in my opinion, even though the toys are visible at the top of the baskets, it's still an attractive option for storing kid stuff.

Fourth, purging the toy collection, as you said. I constantly think about how MUCH stuff my kids have and how many toys there are in this house. There is no way we need all of this stuff!! I started decluttering some of their stuff today, but I really need to do a complete sorting of the toys in the living room and get rid of some. I have noticed that the boys actually find more enjoyment from their toys when they don't have so many and when they're not cluttered and messy.

Anyway, Sally, we definitely have times when we have stuff scattered ALL OVER! Stop by some morning, and you will see what I mean. :) But by 1:30 or so in the afternoon, order is usually restored...and the mess that accumulates during the late afternoon and evening gets put away before bedtime. The mess in the living room, I should say. The mess in our library is another story... :)