Household tips for little ones

[restored]

I thought I might post some things that we do around our house so that our youngest one can help. Liberty is 4 and not really tall enough to do certain chores easily. Allowing little ones to do chores isn't always as much help as extra work for mom, but they need to be able to start as soon as possible. If you wait to long to teach them it is harder in the end, and they love to help.

1. We moved all the dishes to a lower cabinet so that she can reach them to put them away and get to them to set the table.

2. We took a cheap broom and mop from Wal-Mart and cut the handle to an appropriate height and now she can do these chores with ease.

3. She loves doing dishes but has trouble standing at the sink and takes a long time to do a few. We took a large dish pan from Wal-Mart and put it on the floor on two towels and fix her water in this pan. She sits on the floor and does her dishes. She puts them to one side when she is done and then someone takes them to the sink for rinsing and making sure they are clean. She loves it and begs to do them. And this way someone else can be at the sink doing more dishes and they get done faster and everyone helped.

4. I have Liberty put her own laundry away too. I sort it into piles and she puts it in the appropriate drawer. I do the hanging clothes though. She also does her own sock sorting.

5. We try to allow her to fix one simple meal a week. It is usually bologna or pb and j, but she can do it herself and loves it.

Well these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Does anyone else have ideas?
Heather

[benshelpmeet]

Dear sister Heather,

Thank you for this post. Thats pretty neat how you get Librity involved in household chores.

Deanna, what kind of things do you do?

I can learn alot from yall. My older children help me alot. The little ones do not do too much. Amie just turned 12 and yesterday she started her first dress, she finished today and it looks great. She'll ware it on Sunday! Now I have two daughters that can sew well. Yea! What a treasure. Their a blessing to me in so many ways.

~ sister Darlene ~

[MrsDeweySmith]

I wish I could say I do so much, but really, I don't do as much as I know I could in this area.

Each child has a daily task, whether it be wiping down a bathroom, helping in the kitchen, tidying bedrooms, helping with laundry, tending animals -- a job that used to be larger when we had ponies, goats, chickens and rabbits...and prayerfully will grow again once we move to our land this month!, helping with meal preps and clean up, tending to the needs of younger siblings, etc.

We are working on a better routine, schedule, here where each child will be assigned a task or a room for a period of time, say a month or even longer. That will give them specific training in all the aspects of that task/room, and allow them time to perhaps create a routine of their own in accomplishing what mut be done.

I am looking for ways to incorporate more into our days here...we have fallen in the area of time management here and some days, most days, it is almost too much to complete necessary tasks and schooling, let alone the projects we would like...such as teaching sewing to my daughters, working on hand skills (crocheting, embroidery, etc).

How do you teach these skills....do you sit down and have a 'real lesson' in sewing and the like, or do they watch and learn much on their own? How do you fit these things into your day so that nothing is left out?

Sister Deanna

[benshelpmeet]

[restored]

I wanted to add some more of the things that our children do. When Bri was about 5 I started teaching her how to clean the bathroom. We would do it together. Slowly she became in charge of one and I the other. Then she started helping me with that one and eventually we took turns doing one then the other. When Nathanael was 6 she started teaching him how to do a bathroom. Slowly he started helping enough that I no longer even did a bathroom. Now he is in charge of one and Bri the other and Liberty helps Nathanael with his. She can actually do it pertty much on her own, but she just takes a while. The children take turns mopping the kitchen, Liberty included, and Bri does the ironing since I hate to do it and she likes it.

The newest chore added is mowing. Our children are 10, 7, and 4 so this was a tough one. We felt Bri was old enough, but not the others. Our neighbor had one of those old time push mowers (non motorized) and we asked to borrow it. He ended up selling it to us for $2, Liberty paid for it with her own money. The children now fight over mowing and even Liberty can mow. We don't have a very big yard so this is not a real hard task. They even go around mowing our neighbors yards for fun. I highly recommend the investment into one of these if anyone has little ones to young for a gas mower. Even our little neighbor kids like to come over and mow our yard.

A really good author on household organization and assigning chores is Sandra Felton. She has a number of books out and your library should have several or be able to get them for you. Another one is Mary Carney she has some great ideas and is a modest plain Christian lady from here in Indiana. She has two books. They are a very easy read and to the point.

I hope these maybe of help and if someone has other ideas let's hear them.
Heather

[benshelpmeet]

Lets see... We teach our little ones basic skills by getting us to help feed the animials teaching them how much feed to measure and give each animal. ( this has to be tought with the parent there.)

Also they help get together clothes, get them out of the dryer, help fold, again they are to be tought by helping.

There are many things you can teach little ones to help in. I've really not put much thought into how we teach these things, we just go through life teaching our children as we walk by the way. When its time for them to take on a task they are able with little help or instruction. For instance if a child needs to have an something thats not washed yet like a cup. We seem to run out because the toddlers put theirs in the sink after they use it. And they drink alot of water. We get them to wash themselves a cup making sure they rinse it well. This teaches basic skills. We get them to clean up their messes, toys, etc. ( Making sure to put everything in it's place.) Everything has a place and everything in its place. ( This is easier said than done with 8 children ) ;D But we keep plugging away at teaching the children to be orderly, neat, and clean.

~ sister Darlene ~