My children "help" me

I actually got a lot done today even though my children "helped" a lot.  One project that I knew needed to be done but had planned to put off for a while was going through my son's puzzles and decks of cards (various flash cards, Go Fish, Crazy Eights, etc.).  That plan changed today when I let my 4 year old stay downstairs to play while I showered this morning.  When I came back down he had the pieces from nine different puzzles and five decks of cards mixed up in one giant pile.  Here is a picture of what it looked like:

This was taken about halfway through the clean up process.  By this time most of the puzzle pieces were sorted out.  I decided that since they were already being sorted, we might as well tackle this project now.  We counted the pieces from each puzzle (great counting practice for my four year old) and labeled the back of the puzzle pieces with letters.  For example, each piece from the Noah's Ark puzzle has an "A" on the back and each piece from the Cars puzzle has a "C."  Now if he does this again I can let him sort the pieces by himself by the letter on the back.

The backing of the puzzle or the box is also labeled.  Next we sorted the cards into stacks.

Kyler "helped."

Cade was very helpful in this part.  It took over an hour for the entire project, but it finally got done.

Some other things that were accomplished today include:

  -I sorted pictures saved on the computer into files based on content so I can find what I am looking for.

  -I found my handheld computer (kind of like a palm pilot) that I misplaced many months ago.  I consolidated the three calendars that I have been working from all onto one electronic calendar.

  -I worked on cleaning off the sofa table and the dining room table, though neither of these are done yet.

  -My wonderful husband spent quite a bit of time sorting still more receipts.

Somehow I managed to do all of this while still unloading the dishwasher, doing laundry, making dinner, reading to my kids, soothing an unpleasant teething toddler, and going to the doctor's office.  The kids also helped unload the dishwasher and fold laundry.  Yay!  I rejoice in small victories.

What do your kids help with around the house?