Reagan is encouraged to help wherever she wishes!Hi All,
I'm taking a break from my vacation series to talk a little bit more about what Mother Hen at http://shipfullofpirates.com/ (Hostess of Help For Growing Families) commented on this week.
Our family, like Mother Hen's, expects children to help out greatly around the house. My eldest daughter (12) folds all our clothes, sweeps upstairs daily and cleans the bathroom as needed. My second eldest daughter (10) is in charge of dishes (loading/unloading dishwasher, hand washing) and helping with floors. My son (8) takes out all the trash and readies it for pick up, vaccums the upstairs daily and scrubs floors as needed. They all help carry in groceries and occasionally are called on to help with meals. They are also expected to keep their rooms clean, beds made and the downstairs playroom picked up. Any large chores, inside or out they are expected to help with. Also if there is something I just can't get to, they made be called on to pinch hit. (Like helping my four year-old in the bath or playing with the baby.) This is just part of our family. They do not get paid for these chores and we do not give out allowences. (We can't afford to even if we thought allowences to be a good idea.)
So how do our kids come across their spending money? We encourage entrepreneurship. This spring our kids will be putting up a treat table every day for when the school kids get off the bus. (40+ kids live on our street.) Koolaid, cookies etc. made by my children will be available at reasonable prices for the hungry kids. The DH and I will fund the start up and then the kids are expected to tithe and put their earnings back into the business before drawing a salary . On Saturdays we will be holding a "market" in our front yard with various homemade items for sale. Each child will have his own products to make/purchase and be in charge off. This will teach them great business skills and hopefully allow them to run profitable businesses when they get older, rather than just go "get a job".
I recommend the e-book Learning and Earning by Jim Erskine. You may contact him at http://www.homeschoolfreebieoftheday.com/ . It is full of ideas for child operated businesses and inspirational stories of other young entrepreneurs!
I'm taking a break from my vacation series to talk a little bit more about what Mother Hen at http://shipfullofpirates.com/ (Hostess of Help For Growing Families) commented on this week.
Our family, like Mother Hen's, expects children to help out greatly around the house. My eldest daughter (12) folds all our clothes, sweeps upstairs daily and cleans the bathroom as needed. My second eldest daughter (10) is in charge of dishes (loading/unloading dishwasher, hand washing) and helping with floors. My son (8) takes out all the trash and readies it for pick up, vaccums the upstairs daily and scrubs floors as needed. They all help carry in groceries and occasionally are called on to help with meals. They are also expected to keep their rooms clean, beds made and the downstairs playroom picked up. Any large chores, inside or out they are expected to help with. Also if there is something I just can't get to, they made be called on to pinch hit. (Like helping my four year-old in the bath or playing with the baby.) This is just part of our family. They do not get paid for these chores and we do not give out allowences. (We can't afford to even if we thought allowences to be a good idea.)
So how do our kids come across their spending money? We encourage entrepreneurship. This spring our kids will be putting up a treat table every day for when the school kids get off the bus. (40+ kids live on our street.) Koolaid, cookies etc. made by my children will be available at reasonable prices for the hungry kids. The DH and I will fund the start up and then the kids are expected to tithe and put their earnings back into the business before drawing a salary . On Saturdays we will be holding a "market" in our front yard with various homemade items for sale. Each child will have his own products to make/purchase and be in charge off. This will teach them great business skills and hopefully allow them to run profitable businesses when they get older, rather than just go "get a job".
I recommend the e-book Learning and Earning by Jim Erskine. You may contact him at http://www.homeschoolfreebieoftheday.com/ . It is full of ideas for child operated businesses and inspirational stories of other young entrepreneurs!
3 comments:
Great ideas. Love that your daughter folds the laundry. That's a huge help. Well, it's all a great help, I guess I have laundry issues, as in IT TAKES SO MUCH STINKIN' TIME! Maybe your daughter could visit my house. Wait, maybe I should assign someone to that task, someone who lives here. Great ideas, Cyndi.
I echo, great ideas. I love the entrepreneurial ideas.
In our house, the chores for our 4children (age 11 to 16) are organized into three weeks that are rotated between 3 of the children. This means that the person who does the 'week A' list of chores does the 'week B' chores the next week. This system seems to work well because the most 'unpleasant' chores like cleaning out the cat's loo, are rotated amongst 3 of the children. The fourth person is not on the chore chart, but instead is 'kitchen and laundry boy/girl' and is basicaly my personal helper who helps me with all the kitchen chores like washing dishes, emptying the bin, and all laundry chores like emptying the washer and hanging up clothes to dry. Everyone is expected to be responsible for their own tidying of bedrooms & bedmaking etc ...these are not on the chore chart. My middle son (14) wants to be a chef, and so he likes to make at least one meal a day which is brilliant (can't keep him out the kitchen!) The children don't get any pocket-money (allowance), (we don't pay our children to do their chores as we all live here), but instead the three eldest all have newspaper rounds where they can earn a wage. With extra jobs like washing the car the children help as and when required. For some spends, my youngest will do extra chores like cleaning out & organising cupboards. This system works for us and I think it's because variety is the key.
Mandy (UK)
http://6ichthusfish.typepad.com
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