Pine Tree Post | Life Lesson Special
The other day I was thinking...sadly, there are many children out there who miss out on valuable life lessons such as riding public transportation. The children of the PUTP are very lucky children indeed - they have many chances to ride the bus. The experience of paying, dinging for a stop, and figuring out time schedules is priceless, and will be especially useful when they are old enough to take flight and leave the nest - b/c chances are they will not have a car right away. Unproven science has concluded that a few bus rides to a kid will instill a sense of adventure in them and help them see the bus as not intimidating but rather as one form of transportation that can be used with ease. In the grand scheme it will broaden the mind, make the child worldly and confident, maybe even increase their IQ. If nothing else it will at least give context to that song they all sing, "the wheels on the bus go round and round".
Another useful life lesson that many children do not have the opportunity to experience is doing laundry at the laundromat. Luckily for the children of the PUTP they were given this chance last week when the old washing machine finally broke beyond repair - my respects to ol' Whirly who put in many long nights keeping up with three dirt attracting children. You will be remembered.
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| Heavy lifting. Use your legs - a practical skill learned at the laundromat |
There are many skills one learns at the laundromat - budgeting, math, prioritizing, organizing...and most importantly patience.
There were many machines to choose from - top loaders, triple loaders, front loaders - and all had different prices and took different combinations of money. The children were given the task of figuring out which machine would be best for our needs, the cost, and what kind of coins we would need.
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| The Math King does some figuring - 2 Loonies and 2 Quarters = $2.50 |
Then the fun part - putting the money in the machines!
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| Guestimate the time it takes to dry a load - then figure out the cost @ 25 cents for every 7 minutes |
The next couple of hours were a lesson in patience. A quick trip to the park was out of the agenda as it had started to thunderstorm and mindlessly watching the clothes go around and around was not stimulating for the kids. So, that invaluable skill of entertaining yourself was tested. What ensued was a mix of make-a-funny-face-game (thousands of 'funny faces' were made) and colouring.
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| Funny face #17 |
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| Funny face #211 |
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| Funny face #1086 |
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| Funny face #23400 |
These kind of experiences are something the children can take with them on their journey through life. There will be times when they won't have a handy washing machine in the basement or a car sitting in the driveway. They will need to know other ways to handle life - not only to survive, but, to thrive!
Or the ever popular..."Another one rides the bus". Ahh, Weird Al is relevant to so many things.
ReplyDeleteSo true, he needs to write a laundromat song?
DeleteOh gosh, sorry about the machine, but it does look like you had fun!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kim, we are used to burning out washers...with so much laundry it feels like old Whirly was constantly on. However, we bought Whirly from a coworker (for only $75) a few years ago and it only needed one repair since, so I feel we got our money's worth :)
DeleteWe are on the lookout for something a bit bigger this time.
The laundromat is a life experience that every child should have! I used to bring my son (blind, autism) to the laundromat. He was fascinated by the coin operation and keeping track of the wash cycles by their sound.
ReplyDelete