Control the Chaos: Go on an Emu Walk!

Posted by Dana | 0 comments

We recently moved to five acres in the country, and the children use every square inch of it. Believe me, it shows. I’ve found blankets in the windbreak, dishes in the pasture, boots in the barn and juice boxes stuck in the hedge. Never mind the toys strewn about. At least they actually belong out there, though they are supposed to be collected neatly under their tree.

I think there is some sort of law, The Second Law of Children and Their Stuff, that states that all objects put into the possession of a child (no matter how briefly) will be deposited evenly about all the space that child is allowed to occupy. Trying to make any other sense of it leads down a path toward insanity. Seriously, how do you abandon your snow boots in the barn? How do you not notice walking back through the snow barefoot? How do you forget that experience and not know where your boots are until April*?

So we’ve devised a simple game to control the chaos which is our acreage: The Emu Walk.

Have you ever watched an emu walk? They are slow and deliberate, looking from side to side, high and low, stopping occasionally to check out whatever catches their eye.

The goal of a child on an emu walk is to walk slowly and deliberately, looking from side to side, high and low, stopping occasionally to pick up their emu treasure. One day it is trash, another day it is clothing, another it is dishes and yet another it is toys. They diligently fill their bags until mom calls her flock home and they trade their finds for cocoa or a cookie or a movie or whatever the treat for the afternoon is.

Someday we may work on returning things to where they belong after using them, but for the moment I am quite content to have my many small children help in re-gathering all of the things they scatter about on a somewhat regular basis.

How do you encourage your children to help during yard detail?

*The First Law of Children and Their Stuff states that the length of time it will take to find any given object belonging to a child is directly proportionate to how much it is needed at that moment.

Dana is homeschooling her five children while moving to the country. You can follow her plans and adventures while seeking to live life more abundantly at Roscommon Acres.