Try, Try Again

I didn't expect to start teaching my daughters how to read quite so early, but my oldest was asking how to spell and how to read before she was even 3 year old. I knew what book I wanted to use, so I made plans to buy it. Then a friend heard about my plans and gave me the book as she owned it and wasn't using it herself. Well, it soon became clear that although my daughter had the interest, she only guessed about sounds and didn't remember from one day to the next what sound a particular letter made. So I put away the book, worked with her on other things, and used other ideas to help her learn her letter sounds without putting them together into words. A couple years later I pulled out that same book and we zipped through it. Within a couple months she learned to read; she still sounds everything out and copies rather than spelling words independently, but for a kindergartner she is doing fantastic. She reads anything and everything from easy readers to salad dressing labels to beginning chapter books.
.
Last summer we asked our daughter to take out the compost container that we keep in the kitchen to the garden compost after breakfast each morning. She resisted strongly. Then the garden grew taller than her and the neighbors behind us allowed their barking scary dogs right up to the fence border. It was too much to continue expecting that job from her so we stopped. This summer we tried again and she gave no resistance. She's been carrying it out at least once a day since April and will probably continue until her sister is old enough to take over the task.
.
Sometimes when we ask our children to do a chore, it becomes too difficult for us to hold them to it. Maybe it's a constant fight, maybe the child's not old enough, maybe we forget to remind them until it needs to be done now and it's faster for us to complete it ourselves. But that doesn't mean we should always keep that chore to ourselves. After some time has gone by, it may be good to try again. It might even take three or four attempts before the child fully takes on the chore. But those previous attempts were training that helped him/her so the task became less intimidating and more manageable.
.
One of my long-term goals for my daughters is that they know how to cook meals: for a full week even by the time they graduate. My mini-goal to help them in this is that the child of the day simply help me in some way in the kitchen. She might be doing nothing more than mixing with a spoon or helping cut tortillas in half for our quesadillas. To be honest, I was doing well for just a couple weeks and neither has helped me in over a month. But I will try again. I won't let the fact that it didn't stick the first time stop me from trying again. They learned a little in the first attempt: I can now, for instance, hand them washed lettuce and the plastic knife and they know how to cut the lettuce without me. They also know what I mean when I ask for help in the kitchen: since they've done it before they know it won't mean a significant dent in their play time, that it can be a lot of fun, that they have more pride in the meal when they've helped prepare it. So it might not have worked the first time, but that attempt did make a difference and will help as we begin again.
.
I first started having a personal prayer time daily after a high school retreat. Something happened, the habit ended after a week or less, and I didn't return to it for several more weeks or even months. This repeated itself several times over, but generally that length the habit continued gradually grew longer and the gaps in between shortened until eventually, several year later, I could honestly say that I had a personal prayer time nearly every day.
.
What chores and tasks have you tried and failed to teach your children? Do any tasks come to mind that you yourself have failed at the first time through? Is it time to try again?
.
Linked with Works for Me Wednesday and Fellowship Friday and Modest Monday