The Learning Experience

Just cover it up with a paper towel...nobody will notice!

My two boys were babysitting the other night and did a fabulous job! However, the next morning, I found this on the floor in the kitchen...

Suspicious paper towel with an odd-looking stain on it

I picked up the paper towel and found this:

Brown, messy piles always have me concerned

I immediately smelled the brown disaster; phew, smells like chocolate. I decided to wait for my sons to wake up to get their take on how this lovely, mystery mess ended up on the kitchen floor.

Once they staggered out of bed, I directed them to the paper towel. They immediately smiled and acted innocent. "Give me the drill", I quickly exclaimed. By the way, that's not a question.

Here's the drill...

Boys: "We were getting ice cream for everyone but we didn't have any hot fudge. We didn't want to make any so we decided to melt chocolate chips in the microwave. The chocolate chips started smoking..."

Me: "Stop, stop. How long did you set the microwave for?"

Boys: "One minute."

FIRST LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Me: "For next time, when you melt something like this in the microwave, you set it for a short time - 15 seconds or so, stir it, and then repeat until it's melted to desired consistency."

Boys: "OK - so it was smoking and we had to open all the doors. Then, the chocolate was so hot and messy and we didn't want to put it in the garbage, so we decided to pour it in a ziploc bag."

WOW! SECOND LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Older Boy: "The hot, burned chocolate melted the bag and it all fell on the floor."

They didn't need me to tell them that this was a bad idea. They learned, from experience.

Older Boy: "I told him to clean it up (Pointing to his younger brother) but he didn't."

Younger Boy: "No, I told you to clean it up. I was putting the ice cream away."

I laughed. It's easy to laugh when you're not in the heat of the moment. That's why I like addressing the problems when some time has passed and I'm not so fired up about it. 

I don't know how the paper towel made it on top to hide the catastrophe, but nevertheless, they were quickly given instructions to clean it up.

Once the mess was taken care of, we talked about their "Learning Experience". They realized what went wrong and next time, I think they'll both be smart enough to avoid the chaos altogether. How else do we learn, but by experience?

I'm glad they didn't clean it up before I got home. I probably wouldn't have heard about it and they would have missed out on some helpful tips and positive instruction.

So, thank you boys for giving me a good laugh, and for letting me be part of "The Learning Experience."

More to Come...but until then, Stick-to-it!