As you know, if you’ve been reading, for quite some time, I’ve occasionally been running little installments called “Mama’s K.I.S.S.” I know that lots of readers could give many more and far more creative ideas than I can offer, but these installments are just a few tried and true and mostly old-fashioned ideas for putting service hearts in our kids. This is number 57 of a list of one hundred ways we train our kids to serve. K.I.S.S. is an acronym for “Kids In Service Suggestions”.
A friend of mine, who was an elementary school science teacher, once told me that letting your kids organize things was the very best science tutoring your children can receive. I remembered that when my son, at a very young age began to order the books on his bookshelf according to size. I remembered it when he began to keep an alphabetized computer document listing the titles, featured actors and shelf location of all our family movies. I believe this “study of order” if you will, was instrumental in his eventual love of apologetics and, perhaps, even his pursuit of certain post-graduate studies. (Pretty sure he also drives his wife crazy with his near-obsession with categorization and order.)
This Mama’s K.I.S.S. suggestion is about organizing. Have your children find a widow in need of some kitchen cabinet clean-out or a closet reorganization and let them volunteer. For younger ones, you may need to help at first. You might even start with going to the nursing home and letting your kids re-fold the clothing in a chest-of drawers or, with supervision, even make more efficient use of the shelving in a bathroom vanity. you might let them first practice with their own toy box or with your kitchen pantry. This can be a lot of fun if you find a day that’s comparatively stress-free and teach your girls, especially, how top clean out the pantry, looking for expired items to trash and arranging shelves according to categories. This is basic, but it is both science and service.