Making Time for Each Child or The "Kid of the Day"

This post is part of thoughts on teaching kids to work and educating the kids.

"Don't step on a crack or you'll break your mother's back."

I've been wanting to write about this for quite some time now, but since it was really just an idea in my head that I hadn't gotten around to actually implementing - I kept putting it off.  I have so many habits I am trying to establish right now - sometimes just working on those things takes up all my efforts and I don't have the energy to add much more (until we establish those habits), but I know this is important enough to me to put forth the effort right now.

I got the original "Kid of the Day" idea from the Thomas Jefferson Home Companion (I think).  They suggested that you use it to help things run more smoothly (like the Kid of the Day gets to pick his seat first, pick chores first, say prayers, etc.)  I've decided to do a little more with it in order to teach the kids some adult skills and to have some one-on-one time with each of them.

Here is what the Kid of the Day gets to do at our house:
-Pick weekly jobs first
-Help mom make the meals
-Play or learn something with mom during play time
-Run errands with mom if it's a Saturday

Here are some examples of how it looks with different kids:

When Bazinks is the "Kid of the Day", for meal time I will let him mix things or hold measuring cups while I put ingredients in the bowls.  For play time, I'll play a game with him- like where he pretends to be a baby puppy and I'm the mommy and we go on a picnic - or - I'm Princess Leah, he's Luke Skywalker and we're killing bad guys.

When Spice is the "Kid of the Day", I'll let her make a part of the meal on her own while I work on a different part or I will ask her to do it all while I supervise.  She is working on her cooking skills so once she knows how to make a certain thing without any help from me, she will get to add that recipe to her own recipe book.  She and I would like her to have a big book of recipes that she can make all on her own.  For play time, I might teach her how to crochet a flower or help her on a sewing project.

When it's Bud's turn I might play catch with him for play time, or research a bug or something he wants to know more about on the internet.

Little Miss likes me to read to her while we cuddle or to play "Littlest Pet Shops" or other pretend games.

I needed to implement something like this so that I could make sure they got some individual attention from me.  It's not always one-on-one because sometimes siblings want to join in on the activity, but they seem okay with this because they got to choose the activity and they know I'm making time to do something they like.  I also needed to schedule some time to teach them some basic adult skills, but it was easier doing things myself, so most of the time, I would just get the cooking and other things done as fast as I could.  This Kid of the Day idea gives me an opportunity to slow down and teach them some important skills.

Since we are just starting this, I haven't had time to work out all of the glitches, but so far things have gone well.  Maybe I'll write an update post about how things go after implementing it for a while.

Here's how we remember who is Kid of the Day:  I have magnets with a picture of each of the kids on them on the fridge.  They are lined up vertically with a paper next to them that has an assignment for setting the table at meal times.  For example:  right now,  Spice is on top so "Place-mats" is next to her name.  Bud's picture is under her picture so "Drinks" is next to his name.  Little Miss is next and "Food" is next to her name.  Bazinks is at the bottom and "Silverware" is next to his name.  We rotate the pictures everyday (so tomorrow Bud will be at the top next to "Place-mats" and Spice at the bottom setting the silverware).  The child who's picture is at the top is the Kid of the Day.

How do some of you teach your children adult skills and make time to spend with them individually?  Do you think one-on-one time with mom is important for them?