We're big fans of child labor in our house.
No, not the kind where children are forced to spend all of their day in awful conditions, working for very little wages, producing products for people who earn lots of money.
But we are fans of teaching our children how to put in their fair share of work to keep the household managed. And in teaching them how to work hard. And in teaching them life skills appropriate for their capacity. And in helping them to understand and appreciate all that is needed to keep the wheels moving here at the Willis house.
A couple of the chores the boys are regularly wrangled up for:
-Emptying the Dishwasher. They know how to put the silverware away. But the rest of the dishes, bowls, and other items are just taken out and stacked on the counter by them.
- Sorting their dirty laundry. We have 2 laundry hampers in our bedroom...one for lights and one for darks. The boys know how to drag their lightweight laundry hamper into our room and sort their laundry into the appropriate baskets.
- Sorting and folding clean laundry. I like to do multiple loads of laundry on the same day. Then we dump them all in the middle of the family room. We sort them into piles for each person. And then we fold. Landon knows how to fold all of their clothes. Tate is perfecting his underwear and shorts folding still before we move him on.
- Setting the Table. I give them one type of thing at a time (i.e. "Put one plate at each place at the table." When they are done with that, "Put one fork at each place at the table.")
A few other types of things we ask them to do: Check the cat's food and water, take out items to the recycling bin, wash and take grapes off of the stems, help wash the car, "babysit" their baby brother, and the obvious of cleaning up their toys.
Not that they do these things with great joy and excitement. There is usually some whining, some goofing off, impromptu brother wrestling, and supervision required. They explain to me that they "don't like doing these things." I explain to them that neither do I. :)
Any other ideas? What have you been able to get your young kids to learn to do?
