How to Start a Salon

One of the biggest tricks I find in parenting, is to make the menial tasks not so cumbersome. I find that as we try to DO everything... we enjoy very little. Instead, I am trying to find ways to make the simple life, extraordinary... and the complicated life, non-existent. So, we have our daily routine... but none of it is mundane. After the timer beeps for our 20 minutes of chores... we skip and giggle up the stairs to "Salon Time". This is where the girls enter my room with a penny to get their hair done. We made a chart of 9 hair-do's to choose from... and I will do whatever they pick. We made up fun names for the 'do's'. Mariah chose the licorice bow today. Callie chose the crown. Both paid a penny. But the main reason we do this is for conference time. As we play salon, we pretend that we are strangers. We then hold a kind of conversation that strangers do, such as, "so, how many people are in your family?" or "what's your favorite movie, and why?" We discuss all sorts of topics. You will be surprised at the answers given to strangers. They greatly differ from those asked by you. Even in a pseudo salon. :) (By the way we have an office chair that goes up and down like the salon, and Grandma is sending a clipper cape to suit!!)