JDaniel is so into raking leaves. Last year he just wanted to rake the leaves into piles and then carry them to the curb by the handful. This year the leaves are gathered into piles to jump in and be thrown in the air. He spends time every afternoon working on the leaves. We have only a few trees that are dropping their leaves so far this year so the leaf piles have been small. A few days ago JDaniel noticed that his leaf pile had disappeared. “Oh! No! Not My Leaves!” he said. “Where are they?” I told him they might have been blown away by the wind. I really didn’t know. Finally, I asked my husband about it. “Oh! They were ground into small pieces by the lawn mower,” he said.
My husband believes that leaves need to be mowed into mulch size pieces with his lawn mower. That is the way he handled them for the eleven years before JDaniel and I entered the picture. Raking the leaves isn’t necessary. They can just lie on the ground until he gets a chance to mow the lawn.
I have had to explain to my husband the benefit of JDaniel’s raking the leaves. JDaniel gets great exercise raking the leaves with his little blue plastic rake. He “helps” with yard chores by raking the leaves. We will want him to help with yard work when he gets older. He finds great joy in the activity. There is also are certain pride he has once the pile has gotten big.
Is raking necessary? No. Is it something we want to continue to do? Yes. Will we push the leaves under the bushes next time my husband mows the lawn to protect them and then rake them back into the yard? Yes.
LOL….cute! My husband likes them mulched up too, he says its good for the soil or something. Men just don’t understand the fun in raking them and jumping in…all they see is the work involved haha
oo love that he was so attached to his leaves! Ours haven’t started dropping any leaves yet!
You like bubbles? Well, I like leaves! Sadly, we have very few to deal with here in Tucson, and those that do fall, fall in the ROCKS! OUCH! when you jump into them!!
How cute! It’s great that he likes to help and play outside!
That is too cute! It’s amazing what we’re willing to do for our kids, isn’t it? Georgia has no idea about raking leaves, so I might share your hubby’s tip with my hubby. He hates raking.
Oh what an adorable post! I can totally imagine that conversation in my mind and see you busily saving leaves from possible lawn mower demise.
We don’t get much fall here in AZ, but there is a little water retention basin by the house that our Grands make piles of leaves and jump in.
I’m so glad JDaniel has this fun and this memory.
He will be sharing this memory with his Grands someday and all because you rescued some leaves for him.
Thanks for a charming link.
A+
Oh we have leaves to spare here. Hubs picks them up with the lawn mower bagger though. We have so much property we do not rake the whole lawn just the flower beds and plantings. Cute post. Hide those leaves!
Saving the leaves for him is too cute! If you run out, we’ll have TONS of leaves for him to rake in about a month 🙂
That’s sweet! I love how industrious kids are when they are just experiencing the joy of a task we would consider drudgery.
ha ha! That is so cute!!
lol,what a sweet post…
love it about pushing them under the bushes!!!
🙂
See, and in doing that you are teaching your son that hard work pays off. That is funny!
LOL we also mulch them. Now that my oldest mows the flat lawns, they get bagged and dumped into the forest for composting.
So cute! Lovely post!
XOXO LOLA:)
Lets hope is as keen to shovel snow
Yep, you’ve gotta protect those leaves. They’re too much fun to mow away!
=)
Aww, poor guy! Sounds like he’ll definitely have to protect his precious leaves from dad. 🙂
Kristi, Live and Love…Out Loud
@TweetingMama
Cute story! It’s always wise to encourage young children to help with chores around the house as best they can.
That is so cute. I love the part about hiding the leaves under the bushes. Do you by chance watch The Middle with Patricia Heaton? Last night’s episode had a part that reminds me of this. So funny! We don’t get many leaves in our nieghborhood so my kids don’t really have the chance to play in them. Kinda sad.
Fall fun is all about raking the leaves isn’t it? I bet JDaniel has a lot of fun . Leaves are so pretty in the fall , thanks for the beautiful reminder .
Now that is just too funny that you have to hide the leaves from your husband’s mulching habits!!!!!
That’s very cute! It’s great that your son loves the activity so much!
Lesson’s learned early make for wonderful memories and character building that will last a lifetme. Besides, who wouldn’t want to rake with that very BLUE rake!
he is so cute….no wonder you have a blog just about him….love it…bkm
I agree. My daughters help with our chores and they have fun doing it! They do not always do it perfect, but they are “helping” out and practicing so one day, they can take over!..lol
Excellent! What a great way to handle this tricky situation. Man/machine vs. boy/rake. The boy should always win in these contests.
My kids would do that when we lived in VA. The gardeners would mulch the leaves too. Boo! I am totally for hiding the leaves. 😛
Raking leaves is a rite of fall – of course you’ll rake them under the bushes, safe from the mower!
LOL! Save the leaves!
Oh! that’s so sweet! it reminds me of when my guy was little. After we moved into our first house I bought him a little rake but we only had one little lollipop tree. He stood under that tree and raked the 5 leaves together. I had to take a picture as proof we had some.
Hiding your leaves is a good plan! : ) That happy smile is priceless
When we were kids my grandfather always raked the leaves into a giant pile before we went to visit them. We didn’t know he did it for us. We thought he just did it and we messed them up. We always felt bad even though he would laugh at it. I didn’t know until after he died that he did it for us. But we would spend hours playing outside and jumping into the “bed” of leaves. My husband mows them too but your post reminded me of my grandfather. I think next time my grandkids come (when the leaves fall), I am going to rake them a pile of leaves to play in.
We rake them into GIANT piles for the girls to JUMP IN! There are some posts about it on my blog…Our leaves haven’t fallen yet but I am certain I will be raking them into a giant pile again this year.
oh dear naughty daddy! good idea to hide them off the lawn. men and their toys haha.
Tina from
Mummy Diaries
what a great thing….kids and leaves just go together…..melinda
dynamic,
love your beautiful thoughts on B.
Cheers!