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Nanny McPhee’s Third Lesson: Work Together!
Have you been to the great cathedrals in Europe?
Have you seen the Hoover Dam or Mount Rushmore?
Are you amazed at all the medical and technological breakthroughs that are announced on an almost daily basis?
What do all of these have in common?
They were all produced by TEAMWORK!
In the movie, Nanny McPhee tells the children that they must work together.
When people work together, we can build bridges and great cathedrals. When people work together we can develop new breakthroughs in technology and medicine.
But can we implement Nanny McPhee’s third lesson in our daily parenting routine? YES WE CAN!
I know that sometimes it seems that every member in the family is going in a different direction. 🙂 How can we get everyone going in the same direction?
Maybe you can have a weekly family pow-wow where everyone is welcome to contribute their ideas and concerns. Many stores used to have a suggestion box where customers could drop in comments of praise or recommendations for improvement. Perhaps you can have a box where everyone can deposit suggestions for future dinner menus or vacation ideas or issues they would like to talk about at the family meeting. Younger children can tell mom or dad to write their words for them. Keep a pad of paper and a pen or pencil next to the box.
Of course, parents need to be available to their children every day…but you could also set aside a special “talk” time where the family can discuss how to WORK TOGETHER to solve problems or plan thngs.
Even very young children are capable of helping with household chores by:
- Separating darks and lights when you are doing the wash…great lesson in categorizing.
- Folding towels when the wash is dry…great lesson in geometry (halves, quarters, etc.)
- Dusting while you straighten up each room…put on some happy music and you can all dance while you clean.
- Helping in the kitchen as you prepare meals…pouring and mixing ingredients.
When you encourage young children to take on responsibilities, you are helping them develop a positive self-image…we all need to feel useful, valued and valuable. Your family will get stronger as you work together. And if you listen with respect to the opinions of your children, they will be more likely to listen with respect to yours.
Stop by tomorrow for a look at Nanny McPhee’s Fourth Lesson: Be Brave!
VIVIAN KIRKFIELD - Writer for Children 
“When you encourage young children to take on responsibilities, you are helping them develop a positive self-image…” This an excellent point and I bet many entrepreneurs learned this early…
Working together and performing actions that help us and ultimately others is what will continue to sustain our planet. 🙂
Eliz
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You are so right…many times parents think they are doing their children a favor by not giving them chores…but it is just the opposite.
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Exactly, we sometimes forget that over-indulging is the road to hell. 🙂
E
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Please, please help me remember that…I tend to do that with computer work. 😦
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Welcome to the club… Strangely, I left you a comment yesterday that disappeared! Hmmm, was I tired? 🙂
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Your Nanny McPhee lessons are great! This lesson fits in so well with Montessori practical life activities that develop order, concentration, coordination, and independence along with the pride and self-respect children get from doing productive work.
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Thank you so much for your kind words of praise…especially meaningful from you! I hope you read all 6 Nanny McPhee posts. 🙂
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You’ve nailed it Vivian. I have a three-year-old grandson and he’s always eager to help. He lives downstairs, so I get to see him every day. I agree with the fact that young children should help around the house but it’s up to us to teach them. I let my grandson help me out even though it takes me double the time to finish preparing dinner or a cake. He makes a mess, but we clean up together afterwards. I still manage to get things done and furthermore it keeps him busy.
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Oh, Eleanor, that is so true. I remember when my kids helped vacuum or straighten their beds or help in the kitchen. It always took longer and the job was never ‘perfect’…but if we don’t encourage them when they are really young and eager to help, we are missing the window of opportunity…because if they don’t get in the habit of helping, when they are finally old enough to do it ‘properly’, they won’t want to. So happy for you that you have family so close…that is extremely special!
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