Work and Play

I was reading back through some of my posts regarding stream cleanups, and it got me thinking a bit about my kids interest in picking up trash.  It's been a funny progression, and it's at a point when we go out paddling or hiking, picking up litter is almost like fishing to them.  Like an avid angler casting a line with their sites set on hooking a specific kind of fish, my son is now obsessed with (ironically enough) snagging discarded, left for dead, fishing bobbers.  I find this humorous, and completely awesome that he is developing a real and good thing (picking up litter), into a fun game and adventure.

Thinking about this I remembered an afternoon last week. We were hanging out in our front yard with some family and friends, when Miles (my son) started picking Cleavers and sneaking behind people and putting them on their clothes.  Once the other kids discovered the amazing velcro qualities of Cleavers, they joined in, and as one might guess the front yard hang-out time descended into Cleaver chaos.  This lasted maybe 15 minutes or so before all the Cleavers in sight had been plucked, passed from shirt to shirt, to head to head, until they were just non-grabby, mushy, clumps of plant matter.  Our little front yard gathering dispersed, and as i was walking into the house i looked back and realized the yard didn't look like it needed to be mowed for another week :)  The Cleavers are what had gained the most height the quickest, and our actual grass was still at quite a nice level (OK so, now it's no secret that my yard is not just grass but a mix of odd and interesting plants, grass, and weeds that make for a fine surface to play on and look nice when groomed :)  But without a doubt, every Spring we will now hold our annual Cleavers Chaos Throw Down.

Hmm, what other work can we turn into play for the kiddos?