Chore Sticks

I did a lot of chores growing up.  We worked hard in our garden, I always had a chore list on Saturday mornings, I mowed our monstrous Oregon lawn, and when we moved to Utah....SEVEN bathrooms, people.  Every single week.  All seven of them were scrubbed by yours truly.

It sucked at the time, but I'm grateful my parents taught me how to work.  We had Stake Conference last weekend, and more than one speaker talked about the importance of teaching our children how to work.  I have such a strong testimony now of how important it is and how much it can benefit you once you reach adulthood.  I honestly don't think we do our children ANY favors by following them around picking up their messes all the time.

At Stake Conference, we had 2 members of the Seventy there.  One of their wives spoke, and she said that she raised her family on an acre piece of land.  Surrounding the entire property was a wooden fence.  EVERY summer, all 6 of their children had to sand down and re-paint that fence.  Then she said that once the last child was out of the house, they replaced it with a vinyl fence!!  "It was never about the fence!"  Meaning, it was about the work and the values and lessons she was teaching them.  The fence probably didn't need to be sanded and painted so often.  I love that.

I have been thinking for awhile now about giving Cam some more responsibility around the house, but hearing the talks at Conference motivated me to do something.  So I got some popsicle sticks and wrote chores on each one.  Things like:

Clean Bathroom
Kitchen Floor
Clean Room
Empty Dishwasher
Laundry Help

Just things like that.  I also added a few sticks that say "Read 2 books" or "Write 5 sentences about what you did today" so that he can also improve and practice his academics.

So every day after school, he chooses a stick.  He gets REALLY excited about this.  Sometimes I have to help him, like when he chose the Bathroom, I had to show him how to spray everything down.  He didn't do a perfect job, but "it's not about the bathroom".  Right?  :)

Cam is such a good little worker.  I'm so proud of him!  Soon enough, Miss Roo will start school and have to do her own chore sticks.  I love having little helpers!

Mopping the entry