Kids Chore Tips - Dawdling

One area that most moms need help with is getting their children to do their chores well and without dawdling. Charlotte Mason had the answer for this. It is found in her teachings of habit training. A chore chart such as the ones on my site will not get your children to do their chores. Even the detailed chore lists will not get then enthusiastic about their jobs!

But the coming alongside your children and the consistent training in the habit of orderliness will get the results that you need. It is well worth your while to spend your children’s early years instilling these good habits into their character. It will bring you days ahead that are not marred by unfortunate attitudes. By the way – it’s never to late to get your children doing their chores!

A precious homeschooling mom bemoaned the chore situation in her home a week or so ago. She was looking to change the status quo at home and to begin training her children’s hands and hearts. Praise God for willing hearts to spend time improving situations when they have gone wrong.

I realize that she is not the only one who has a “chore situation” in their homes and I know that it is not always possible to think clearly when we are frustrated with the way things are. Often we become sidetracked by bad attitudes and decide to leave things as they are instead of allowing God to lead us in the training of our children’s hearts and hands.

Using some of the chore information on my site and a new chore system I have created a low price eBook entitled Tips for Successful Kid’s Chores to help moms stay on track, focus on the bigger picture as well as implement a fun and easy to use Chore Pocket System with their children. Take a look, perhaps this 20 page eBook is the answer for you!

Kids Chore Tips - Nagging

I hate nagging. I refuse to nag my children to do their chores, do their work, get up, go to bed or any other thing related to our routines.

The Bible says a nagging wife is like a dripping tap. I wonder what a nagging mother is like? Have you ever tried to sleep with a mosquito buzzing around your head- maybe that’s it – a nagging mom is like a mosquito.

Charlotte Mason talks about a child learning to “stand or fall by their own effort.”

In our home this means that they have to live out the consequences for not doing what needs to be done. I believe as parents we need to come alongside our children and train them in how to do chores around their house. We need to be patient with them until the light bulb goes on and “they get it”. And obviously be right with them during disciplined studies.

But for the child who is lazy, who cuts corners, maybe one who outright lies about having completed work when they haven’t, this child needs to feel the consequences of their choices.

For younger children it would be treated as disobedience in our home and action taken, but when it comes to older children, they need to see the natural effect their laziness or cutting corners has.

How this will play out in your home, you need to decide. But I let my children know its chore time and expect them to do their jobs. After a time period has passed which I deem sufficient for their chores I do a quick check.

We don’t seem to have a problem with cutting corners anymore after some very heart to heart chats as the TV gets turned on at 7 pm for their daily hour of Discovery Channel and the offender is still doing their jobs. Nagging kills relationship, consequences train. More on chores

Kids Chore Tips - Secret Service Agents

A way I encourage my children to bless one another with chores is with a game. I must just have a quick sidebar here and say that my children are very normal children. They battle with dying to self as all children do. They battle with what all of us perceive as “our rights”. So when you read this next idea, please don’t visualize these picture perfect kiddos doing everything with selfless hearts.

As I am, so are they, growing in serving. This is just one way that I can encourage my children to show love to one another without expecting anything in return.

Secret Service Agents When our children are doing their chores I will encourage them to find something that they can do for a sibling, without that sibling knowing. They are not to expect thanks or anyone to reciprocate, but just to do it because it helps and blesses another.

I like to do this too for my children once in a while on top of the normal mommy-ing things we all tend to do for them on a daily basis.

Kids Chore Tips - Gardening

In August I made this entry in my blog: “Spring hinted this morning as my husband sneezed 7 times in a row! With the sneezes come less rain and warmer weather down here on the tip of Africa. It is time to turn my thoughts towards our garden. My children are each old enough to now be given responsibility for their patch of erf. I allowed each of them to choose a flower bed and take ownership of that space. This includes the planning, planting, weeding, watering and nurturing of that area. They have all enthusiastically taken on the job and started turning over the soil and weeding. I plan to take this project a little further and give them a budget and take them to a nursery to choose some plants for their garden patch! Here's to Spring!”

As summer rapidly sets in it is so good to have an outdoor area that is a joy to visit. Organizing your outdoors creates an extension of your home. It is also the perfect spot to enjoy daily nature study. Each month my children now get a sum of money in the form of a chore allowance to use for the improvement of their gardening patch. Our oldest has chosen to grow herbs and vegetables, my older son prefers flowering shrubs, our younger daughter loves perennials for beauty and our little guy has planted lots of sunflowers. By spending just a few hours a week in their garden areas, along with me, we are taking “bite-sized” chunks out of a big task.

Kids Chore Tips - Earning money

From very young we have included our children in the daily work that is needed to run our home. We started out little ones with simple easy chores from the time they could walk. As they grew in maturity and strength we opened new doors of responsibility for them. The home became their first training ground and is still for my younger three children. You see many folk miss the point of getting their children to do their chores. Busy homeschool moms can see the doing of chores as only a way to get the house clean with a few extra pairs of hands, when in fact the basic principle of teaching our children to work within our home is a much bigger picture to grasp.

Chores are the first building block in learning stewardship. As your toddler remembers to put his shoes away or obeys you and throws away her diaper after a change, you are sowing the first seeds of responsibility.

Add to this working with a happy heart and you are teaching them to be content when they have to do something they don’t want to do.

Do not spend the whole day on at our children to “pick up this” and “pack away that”. Set your chore times, train them to do them correctly and deal with any grumbles with grace and by example.

Once your children have learnt to serve in their homes, to serve their parents and their siblings with happy hearts, then they can be encouraged to find other opportunities for work. This is not a process that can be rushed and often I hear from moms of 6 year olds who want them to do odd jobs for others to earn and income…be very careful not to rush a harvest out of season!

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