Chores

When my oldest kids were quite young I realized that it was necessary to assign them weekly chores. Our first Chore Chart was born. It has gone through many changes as it has grown along with our family. For one, the font has gotten much smaller. I like to say that my kids will be able to read any bus schedule after growing up with this chore chart. It gets kind of complicated and several of my kids have taken it upon themselves to try and make it more fair. The kids like knowing what is expected of them, it cuts down on the squabbling and I know who to go to when a chore isn't done properly. Even though they do a bit of grumbling they don't question the fact that they are expected to get their chores done after each meal. It's just a fact of life. I am confident that any of my girls could run our home quite efficiently if I had to be away.

All of the kids when they were Sarah's age loved to run to the refrigerator after each meal to see what their chore is. They are so cute, unfortunately their enthusiasm is inversely proportional to their ability to do a good job on any given chore. Sarah isn't on the chore chart yet because I can still get away with pointing to approximately the right place on the chart and telling her what to do. I'll have to get her on there soon though, the kids learn which color is theirs very early and the first words they learn to read are sweep, empty trash, kitchen, etc.

Quentin & Sarah washing dishes.

Quentin takes after Tom Sawyer in that he is able to get the little boys excited about helping him out with his chores. He's an effective leader. He rules the boys room and many mornings I hear crying coming from the boys room because he won't let them come down to breakfast until their room is clean.

Below Quentin has the little boys helping him wash the dishes and of course Sarah had to be in there too.

Benjamin and Sarah emptying the trash.

David vacuuming. The youngest kids are always eager to run the vacuum.

Each of the older kids has a day to cook. Joshua, when he was 8 years old, began cooking with my help this last year. That leaves me with only two days to cook, yeah!

Below Quentin and Sarah are scrambling eggs.

The younger kids are always eager to cook. Sometimes, especially if Paul is not going to be eating, I let them go for it. I think in the picture below they are either cooking Ramen noodle soup (with vegetables added) or macaroni and cheese.

Sarah and Caleb grating carrots for a salad.

In the video below Quentin is getting then 15 month old Sarah to help him clear the table.