Peanut Butter and Jelly

After his 5th Birthday, I gave L a peanut butter and jelly sandwich making lesson.  Most days when I sit down to nurse baby O the big kids immediately run to me and start begging for food.  It's amazing how they go from being perfectly content to starving in a matter of seconds.  One day L's begging and whining drove me so crazy that I decided to just teach him how to make his own sandwich.  I know at some point he'll have to learn it himself, so why not a few days after he turned 5?  So, I sat down with him and gave him specific instructions: use a spoon to get the jelly out and then use the back of the spoon to spread the jelly.  Use a knife to spread the peanut butter, but don't pull out too much at a time or you'll rip the bread.  Together we made a pretty great sandwich!

The real test came a few days later when he wanted to try it all by himself... while teaching his little sister too.  It was the messiest process I have ever seen, and days later I'm still finding sticky spots, but he made two perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (with probably 3 times the amount of jelly that I use).  It took him about 45 minutes and he shed some tears in the process over his sister getting in the way, or doing it wrong, but in the end he was so proud of himself!

L, explaining it all to E

The Ultimate Sandwich Maker!

Look at the concentration on L's face!