Friday, January 25, 2008

Civilizations





If you've ever been exposed to an anthropology lesson you hear about hunters and gatherers, and the rise of agricultural societies. I am finding the same to be true in our own little society here.
Hadley only takes what she immediately needs/wants with no real plan in mind. She is a whim girl. This is messy, but not to the extent of the three who tend to do the short term planning. While the triplets "hunt and gather" (they also hunt and scatter), Ian has moved on to a new stage of development. He would prefer to set up camps all over the house, and leave them in at least a semi-permanent fashion.

The question is then: How can I possibly have a neat, organized house with these three competing civilizations living in it?
Hadley is best given a single toy box to throw all the things she plays with in upon completion. This is breached, however, by the three who want to "add" some of their own pieces, use a large toy box as a house (after they dump it), and who have too many pieces to mix up in this fashion.

Ella, Holly, and Jilly do best with bins, and cubbies for sorting generalized groups of toys. They also should have a large trash can at their disposal, and lots of supervision to clean up before the mess gets out of hand. Otherwise the "scatter" mentality is too strong, and it takes us days to find the pieces that have been taken to another floor of the house....

Ian, representing the agricultural society, would love to set things up where the location is good for what he is doing. ( The kitchen table makes a GREAT paper football field) The problem is, even if he finds a place that does not keep us from eating dinner, his area is often under attack by the pillagers of the first two societies. This keeps him from leaving all of his "nearly" finished projects, and ideas for a later date.
I am starting to think that we should have three smaller cottages with a single common eating space.

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