An Element of Fun

Four year olds are incredibly capable of doing a myriad of activities and they love to contribute to making their homes (and Nana's) a better place to be.
My grand girl is very adept at swiftering (one of my favorite sports), setting the table, wiping the table and the placemats, loading the dryer, folding the wash cloths and helping to make a bed. She is also very good at undoing a room, and in minutes can have trails of play circling a room, decorating it in rich detail with varied selections from her collections which always seem to come together in whimsical unpredictable ways. In other words, playing can get messy. But, we wouldn't want it any other way because then it might not be ---play.
I have learned on many ocassions that pick up and clean up from play time can almost always be made easier, simply by putting on the Mary Poppins song from the movie, you know--- the one where the children clean up the nursery. "In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. Find the fun and snap the job's a game." The fast-paced tune gets everyone in gear (unless you're in a real bad mood) and a room can be cleaned up in no time at all.

And it's a fun song to sing, too! Really now, think about it, how often do you get to sing a song about a whole spoonful of sugar?