The Final Day of the Kid's Survival Experiment

The final day started off well. The kids got up leisurely and Lucy. still in pyjamas, made pancakes for breakfast.

Lucy put the washing on but without some of Tristan's things so he added them later - I am not sure when.
They made themselves instant noodles for lunch.

But after lunch it descended into chaos. They were tidying the kitchen after the mess from lunch and breakfast when Tristan used too much cleaning spray, Lucy got cross and the yelling began. Tristan walked out. Lucy followed in tears, "You have no idea how tired I am. All the cooking I have done for you!" She also declared her dislike of little brothers and he wasn't very complementary back. Every time they looked at me to sort it out, I told them it was up to them.
After sitting around ignoring each other before cajoling each other, rather forceful hugging, apologising and more tears they actually finished cleaning the kitchen, putting the dishes away and hanging out their washing. All that, with the arguing, took them nearly two hours. Lucy still kept reminding Tristan of his shortcomings. I asked if she thought this approach was helping the situation. "Yes," she says, "It is very revenging."
Tristan was on dinner, it was an easy one fish and chips - ie. fish fingers and a bag of supermarket chips. He even offered to make it for us too. His own touch was spearing the fish fingers on kebab skewers to make 'hot dogs'.
He read the instructions on the packets, heated the oven, put it all in and waited the eight minutes the packets said. He got it out after exactly eight minutes and declared it ready - this was at 4:45pm.

The ill-fated first bite.

But after one bite, Lucy deemed it wasn't cooked enough and the plates were emptied back onto the trays and back into the oven. Lucy suggested desserts were more his strength but another fifteen or so minutes and he was serving up with more golden coloured fish fingers and chips.
Tristan hung the washing on the rack to finish drying - it seems suspiciously wet. He hung it on the rack, not for maximum drying but to make a hut.
Lucy had planned self-saucing chocolate pudding for dessert but her previous recipes had used up all the eggs. I said I wasn't going to buy more and sometimes you just had to change your plans to suit what was in the pantry. Lucy instead went next door and asked Grandma if she could borrow an egg.

Enjoying Lucy's pudding, the extra 

was taken over to Grandma.

There is one kitchen tidy up and putting sorting the dishes to go before what Tristan has termed 'the last supper'.
Tristan said he has enjoyed the experiment. He said, "Being an adult is actually quite hard. You can't just stay on the computer all day because you have jobs to do."
He said he learnt a lot and this included, cooking for just two of them was quite easy but doing all the dishes was harder than it looked. He also found hanging the washing out difficult because of the height of the washing line.
Lucy found the experiment tiring and awesome. She says, "Don't take parents for granted they do a lot of work." She found doing the washing and not just leaving it for us, quite hard. She also found she couldn't just do her own thing as her day kept being interrupted all the time for having to do jobs, like make lunch and do the dishes.
Overall the amount of dishes created has been vast compared to normal while the clothes deemed needing to be washed has been tiny.

Late Update: The kids were a little too excited while finishing cleaning the kitchen and engaged in a spot of dancing ( rock'n'roll or beyblade style, depending on your era) which led to Tristan falling against the bookcase. A trip to the after hours was needed and a little glue to the head. So if you try this experiment ban dancing. From the start to think I was most nervous about knife use and the hot oven!

The Survival Experiment - Day 1, Part Two.

Tristan is on dessert tonight so Lucy tells him to make his chocolate cake in the afternoon before she starts her meatballs.
He calls out to me to come and melt the butter for him. I remind him, he has to do it. He does drop the box of eggs while trying to put it away, which results in three broken eggs, now in a glass.

Those are Lucy's shortbread
in the background

When Lucy finds out, she says it is fine she will use them in her bacon and egg pie tomorrow night. As cake smells fill the kitchen Lucy wants to get the cake out and test it for doneness. But Tristan says, "I know what it looks like when it is cooked!" He gets it out when he thinks it looks done.
Once Tristan is finished, Lucy starts cooking meatballs from a recipe she found in one of our recipe books.

Everything is happening in the kitchen,
while the washing sits on the line as the sun goes down.

Once the meatballs are in the oven. The kids decide to go and get their washing, now sitting in the dark. Tristan brings it in and dumps it in the basket under the heat pump. "It's not dry. I am going to leave it here all night to finishing drying." Time for the observers to suggest perhaps hanging it on the rack.
Lucy serves her meatballs with spaghetti, following the instructions on the packet, though they also eat the spaghetti raw while they wait for the water to boil. She serves it quite al dente.

"Two hours!" She says. "I am not cooking meatballs again!" We have a wee taste of her meatballs and they have great flavour - lots of herbs.

Tristan's cake is superb. It is very soft and moist. He even lined the tin. It is not as chocolately as usual so I think he confused teaspoons and tablespoons. The icing ends up very runny so he serves it as a sauce on top of his cake for pudding. He added almond essence to the icing/sauce.

While Tristan is unable to finish his slice of cake for pudding, Lucy hangs up the washing on the rack.

All the while she says, "I am not staying up tonight. I have been working so hard. How do you guys do it all the time and working too?"

The kitchen is suffering, the floor has bits of herbs on it and the fridge door is sticky. 

At 8:45 they are laughing and loading the dishwasher. Lucy is moaning about being very tired. But she wants to make camomile tea for supper. She says she now understands why we don't go to bed when she does as there is still work to be done.

Finally 9:30pm they decide to go to bed but Tristan is going to bed in his clothes. How will this lack of sleep affect their efforts tomorrow will be interesting to see.

There is one thing we have helped them with - the childsafe lid of the dishwasher powder. This wasn't their fault and I am sure with their powers of destruction they could have got into it - but I would rather the container still be in one piece at the end of three days.

The Three Day Survival Experiment

Karl heard about a psychologist who believed a seven year old should know enough to be able to look after themselves for a week.
Now Tristan is seven, our kids were up for the challenge but we thought three days would be long enough for all of us.
While we will of course be here to make sure they are doing okay, they will be doing it all for themselves. They have a had a good meal tonight to see them on their way for the next three days.

Today the rules were set (above their usual tasks of making their beds, having showers etc). 
What you are in charge of:

• Feeding Yourselves.
• Doing dishes from cooking.
• Cleaning, Drying, & Putting clothes, worn over the 3 days, away.
• Keep Communal areas tidy.
• Putting yourselves to bed.
• Entertaining yourselves.
• You still need to ask to borrow Mummy and Daddy's things.

The kids, well Lucy (aged 9) really with Tristan agreeing she should, decided to plan a menu.

They have decided that working together is going to be the best plan so they've put their initial next to the meals for which they are in charge. It also looks like from the menu they are aiming to do more than just survive, with puddings and a supper planned for each day. Vegetables don't seem to be having much of a chance to be eaten in the next three days!

Tonight they are very confident of their cooking ability and filled with the joy of the idea of setting their own bedtime and having supper. Their clothes are all clean and packed away in their drawers ready for the next three days.
Let's see how the next three days pans out.