As a homescool mom, I NEEDED my children to help in keeping the house picked up/clean. Of course, that meant that I HAD to loosen my standards on how certain chores are done. I first had to learn this when Mike and I first got married. Things as simple as how to fold a towel. Mike has his way and I have mine, neither is right or wrong but in the beginning it bothered me so badly that I would go behind him and re-fold the towels my way, which was totally unnecessary. Well, the same is true of certain chores. If it gets the job done within acceptable conditions, what difference does it make exactly how it is done?

I do believe in showing/teaching my children how to do the job the way I like it done and did this but when they came up with different ways to do the job, as long as the end result was acceptable, I let go of my way and let them do it their way.

Since the boys are 6 and 4 years older than Tiffany, I had already begun training them to help by the time she came along. Obviously she couldn’t help when she was an infant or one year old. I did get her to “help” with some things but never anything consistently. Then one day when she was about 8 years old, it suddenly dawned on me that she was 8 and didn’t have any assigned chores. The situation got rectified rather quickly. I wondered why that was, when I had her brothers with assigned chores much earlier and then it dawned on me, I NEEDED the boys help but they were such a big help that I didn’t NEED Tiffany to help, so I didn’t notice that she wasn’t.

Now to get me wrong, she helped us pick up things off the floor and she helped put things away and such. She just didn’t have a night where she put the dishes in the dishwasher after dinner or where she dusted or swept or such.  Needless to say, the boys were quite happy when she got dealt some chores.

I read this article this week that gave some good tips for chore time and some benefits from chores for children other than helping Mom and a clean house. It’s a good article; I hope you take a few moments and check it out. I think you’ll be glad you did. (They also address money for chores.)

So you may be wondering what chores are appropriate for children at what ages. I have found several websites that have some lists for you to reference but remember that you know your children and their abilities best, don’t let some list tell you what they can and cannot do.

• http://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/parenting/foundations/character-development/age-appropriate-chores-for-children
• http://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com/chore_list.htm
• http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/parenting-challenges/motivating-kids-to-clean-up/age-appropriate-chores
• http://www.themodestmomblog.com/2015/03/our-morning-chore-routine/

Finally, here is a post where she shares her chore list – well not really the chore list but how she displays and uses her chore list. Then she talks about chore consistency, which is vitally important, and actually shares how her days go (or at least did at the time of the posting). It is a longer read but I hope you will at least mark it to read later because she shares some really good thoughts.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº