Several experienced therapeutic riding instructors were hanging out in the tack room once upon a time, while I imitated a fly on the wall. They were discussing the extent to which even in able-bodied children, fine motor skills seem to be in decline. The young riders do not wield pens or pencils to the extent their parents did. The children often don’t have to lace up and tie their shoes (Crocs are technically shoes, I suppose); their clothing might not feature buttons, zippers, or buckles when Velcro will do instead.
On the simplest horse bridle, you’ll find four buckles. An English girth has four more, and stirrups are generally adjusted by means of buckles. If a rider has never met the concept of a buckle, then how to open, adjust, and fasten a buckle can be perplexing.
One of the instructors went on to lament that she had to show a child how to use a broom (a swept barn aisle is a safer barn aisle). I learned that sweeping with a broom used to be an occupational/physical therapy staple for several reasons. First, it’s simple. No on/off switch, no this-side-up baloney, no left-hand or right-hand limitations. Pick it up and go.
Second, brooms are safe. Yes, you can ka-bong somebody over the head with one, but there’s no electricity, no sharp anything, no cord to trip over. Third, a broom is cheap and has a useful life of nearly forever.
But fourth–and to me most significantly–using a broom requires cross-body movement. You can use a broom without moving a hand past the mid-line of your body, but that’s much slower than whisk-whisking along, shoving the dirt from your dominant side, past your non-dominant foot. This kind of activity lights up both sides of your 
brain at once, which makes learning or even cognitive processing of any sort easier (thus explaining the pediatrician’s delight when a baby starts to crawl).
Who knew? And maybe this is why sweeping is one of VERY few domestic activities I affirmatively enjoy. Scrubbing the cabinets results in the same sort of, “housecleaning was done here” visual difference as sweeping the floor does, but I prefer sweeping. It’s gentle, quiet, makes a visual difference, and gives me a sense of having imposed order on chaos as scrubbing does not. I suspect the cross-body brain boost is a large part of why I feel more settled after having swept the floor. The term “meditative” comes to mind, whereas I find a lot of other domestic chores either tedious (folding clothes) or tiresome (scrubbing the instantly-self-dirtying floors, walls, appliances, and counters).
Do you enjoy some simple, old-fashioned activities more than others? Do you still wash and dry dishes by hand or avoid the electric toothbrush gizmos? Maybe you do mending by hand or bake your own bread?
When are the old ways still the best ways for you? I suspect in each case, there’s a sound neurological or emotional benefit resulting from your “simpler” choice.
PS: The first set of Advanced Reader Copies for An Heir of Distinction have just gone out. The web store ebook has gone live, as has the Amazon print version. The retail edition comes out on Friday. If you’d like an ARC file, please email me at graceburrowes@yahoo. com.
There aren’t any household chores I enjoy because I’d always much rather be reading. But doing the laundry, up to and including folding everything and putting it away, doesn’t bother me and I feel accomplished. I actually started doing my next sister’s and my laundry back in high school so have been doing it a very long time. My partner occasionally does laundry and getting the dry clothes on to the top of the dryer laid out flat is “done” as far as he’s concerned. Actually he’s sort of that way with emptying the dishwasher in that he will move a clean dish to the countertop above or below the cabinet in which the dish belongs and leave it there. Doesn’t make any sense to me but since he does most of the work with the dishes (has even forbidden me from loading the dishwasher since he doesn’t like how I do–spoiler, I follow the directions in the DW manual), I just put the abandoned dishes away. Most of the “housework” I do besides the laundry is financial, except I do try not to leave my things in places they do not belong and I clean up anything I spill immediately, so mostly preventive. Creating less work is always a plus in my book.
Your partner’s behavior reminds me of how my brothers would react when Mom had a hissyfit about “people” leaving glasses and dishes all around the house, and leaving the whole mess for her to retrieve, wash, dry, and put away. For a while after one of these eruptions, the sink would mysteriously fill with dirty glasses and dishes… for my mom to wash, dry, and put away. Erm… guys?
I like to use an old-fashioned “reel” mower to cut our grass. It’s quiet, there’s no electric cord, no batteries to charge, no gasoline fill-up. I can even sharpen it myself now, courtesy of YouTube. Hooray!
Those things are magic to me, but the versions I’m familiar with a very heavy, and do not deal well with uneven ground. I could maybe do my fenced backyard with one of those, but not the barnyard… even with a riding mower that’s a challenge.
Very interesting to read about the neurological benefits of sweeping. My mother, who is at home but declining with dementia, spends alot of time sweeping the deck around her house. We’ve appreciated it for the “getting outside” and “staying active” benefits. But I’d never thought that it may be helping her poor brain box tick along.
So will tying her shoes, buttoning her buttons, and fastening her belt buckle… and most absolutely especially, listening to, making, and MOVING to music. Get Mom a playlist to sweep to, and that deck will spotless AND fun!
Washing dishes by hand and ironing clothes are calming for me when my senses are in overload mode. Those also give a tangible sense of accomplishing something. Sweeping with a broom is often easier for one room than lugging out and putting together the pieces of the electric vacuum cleaner.
Manual toothbrushing. Hand mending along with using the sewing machine – lots of mental workout with the machine to plan, thread the machine (especially the serger), and execute properly.
I also like writing my lists out by hand on paper instead of typing on my phone. I reuse the blank backs of junk mail paper, cut in fourths, for my paper lists. If I mess up, I can throw it out and start over without being too wasteful. Very satisfying to cross things off as I get things done, too!
I find a sensual meditation in writing letters on nice paper using stub or oblique nib fountain pens. My first grade desk mate’s 89 year old Mom gets a chatty multi page letter from me at least once a week, with different pretty ink colors for each session. (Never less than 3 pens inked & in rotation). She, in turn, sends news about her daughter whom I haven’t seen since high school, clippings about new book releases from her local paper which hasn’t gone digital yet, news about her new life in the assisted living facility, & bits from her daily devotional group that meets for Bible study & targeted prayer.
A bit of porch gardening is a sensory treat with my lavender blooming in gratitude for the fertilizer I tossed, rosemary snips to go in my cooking, & I have my first rose bud of the year (pink). Not yet time for bee dodge as the jasmine on the trellis is only now leafing out.
I found I enjoy swiping my counters & stove now I’ve found Zum makes a frankincense & myrrh spray cleaner. If bribing myself with yummy fragrance suddenly makes cleaning more attractive, I’m ready to do some Kung Fu Kid wipe on/wipe off! Ha!
I enjoy baking and it soothes me to knead bread so no bread machine. I type a lot but find i think better with a pencil and pad. Tech is here to stay but I believe we’ve lost some things along the way.
Maybe this will inspire me to keep my floors cleaner. Brain health!
Fine motor skills for writing & such are gone by the wayside maybe, but I learned a lot watching my 3 (then) year old granddaughter play with my smartphone. Their world is very different than ours was, & if interested, will I’m sure, learn necessary mechanical skills. Though maybe not how to drive a standard! Lol. I myself use a glorious handcrafted broom for my sweeping, & only use a vacuum to beat some of the dog hair out of the carpet. I always hang my clothes out on the line, & have acquired my mom’s sourdough starter for making biscuits regularly. But my best & longest lasting selfcare is an early morning walk. Something about the early light & the brain sorting out the day is necessary for me. & thanks! For the ARC, I really look forward to your books!
I’ve been teaching my middle schoolers cursive-so much easier for them than for 3rd graders. They love it! For me, I weave on a36” loom with things for both my hands and feet, and I knit and sew-and hope the cleaning in any and all fashions just gets done magically…
Speaking of how our brains work, there was a fascinating article on CBS Sunday Morning today. An author, Arthur C Brooks, described how we are failing our brains by not letting ourselves be bored. Evidently, while we are bored our brains are busy thinking and creating. No wonder we are falling behind in innovations.
So glad you brought this up. I (retired OT that I am) can tell you why fine motor skills are deteriorating. They are no longer taught or expected in the school curriculum. Cursive has been pulled from school curriculum everywhere. The kids kind of played around with it once in a while where I worked. These kids cannot read the declaration of independence or any of the other historical documents out there. They don’t learn keyboard correctly. I had a teacher tell me that allowing them to hunt & peck they will do just as well (argh!!!)
As for me, I sweep – I have weak hands and can’t get the canister open to dump the vacuum dirt. I also learned to darn socks because I refused to throw them out when I stuck my toe through them. I mostly use the dishwasher because it uses less water than hand washing and I live in a severe drought area. I save the water for my trees. I don’t want to loose them!!
The old-fashioned skill that I enjoy is hand quilting. I get great pleasure out of planning a design and then using a threaded needle to bind the “quilt sandwich” together. Very soothing.
Like Beth Lisk, above, I love making hand-written lists: groceries, borrowed library books, tasks to do, hand-drawn sketches of maps when I’m going to an unfamiliar place, etc. Even better is when I colour-code them.
I can’t do many of those things any more. I appreciate the devices that make those chores easier for crippled hands and arms. I used to find ironing rather therapeutic, although I am not so old to haved used the clothes presses. Sheets better not need ironing or I’ll wash them again! Pillow slips, now, those I’ll do.
I was trained to watch for “crossing the center” Many songs and rhymes for small children incorporate that. I remember how thrilled my sister’s first grade teacher was that she could jump rope so well. My parents were baffled. Another mind/body milestone.
My mother always bought corn brooms. They used to be readily available at the local hardware stores. These brooms were used to sweep the grass clippings after the lawn was mowed. And she swept the street in front of the house, as well. There were times when she used the broom to sweep a dusting of snow that was not quite enough to get the snow shovel out for, but her pragmatic German beliefs wouldn’t allow the snow to just stay on the driveway. Snow shoveling is another cross body activity. When the corn brooms wore down my mother used them to scrub the concrete in the garage. She did spring cleaning of the garage floor after the winter accumulation of salt and road dirt. After both of my parents died and my husband, son and I started cleaning up the house, we ended up with a bunch of dust from crumbled carpet padding. My son went into the basement because he had seen a broom there. It still had the protective cover on it. It was the last corn broom my mother had bought and never used. The cover came off and the broom was used. At least a half dozen worn down brooms were found in the garage. My husband bought a wide push broom when we moved into our house and we have replaced it a few times. We never bought a corn broom. And after my parents died I was asked by a former neighbor if I swept the street like my mother did. I answered no. My mother always wanted to keep the area around the storm drain in front of the house clear. The house I moved to didn’t have the storm drain nearby. I admit to taking a rake and removing all the debris that clogged up the storm drain several houses from mine when the street was mostly flooded. And I probably will be sweeping the street once we move into my parents house after renovations are complete. I don’t want the storm water to back up into the basement. Raking leaves is sometimes meditative and it gives a feeling of accomplishment. Sweeping with the corn broom reminds me of the way my grandmother and mother swept. My aunt in Germany had a broom made from willow branches. She told me it had been made by my grandfather. It definitely was the broom that lasted forever. By the time I asked about the broom, my grandfather had been dead at least thirty years. Unless my cousin did something with it that broom might still be around.
I also enjoy sweeping for same reasons. Also do dishes and mending by hand and enjoy folding clothes, while listening to audio books.
First – Yay on the new book. I’ve just purchased it from your store. I’m in a weird hybrid space. I love to read paper books, but just as often use my phone. I hand wash a good chunk of my dishes, but still use the dishwasher. I enjoy baking, and will make some things from scratch, but use my bread machine. I do sweep, but also vacuum. I can’t think of anything that I do that is 100% old-fashioned, but I like to keep my hand in. I can still read and write cursive, which is also quickly becoming a lost art. I still write checks by hand (in permanent market, cause .. fraud), though I often use my credit card.
“Huzzah for the new “Heir” who arrived today in my Kindle library and a double Huzzah to learn I can have their audio books in the UK. Now what about Lord Julian making a vocal appearance over here?- I’m desperate to hear him but can’t get the audiobooks here.
My husband loves to wash dishes, glasses and pots and pans. I prefer the dishwasher.
I like to fold towels, dust and sweep. I also love to brush my dogs- they look better and it’s a calming action for me.
I write lists on paper vs on my phone. Indomjse the calendar app on my phone for Dr appointments.