Smart Summer Focus: Engaging Ways to Grow Children's Household Chores Skills

One really challenging element of being a parent is managing a household full of people and keeping it in reasonable order. It can be tempting sometimes to throw your hands up and resign yourself to messes. And, truthfully, there are times when that is the way to go. But as a regular habit, it’s helpful to have some practices in place that keep the household environment inviting, reduce stress and help your children develop good habits they can take with them into adulthood.

Chores

dusting, bathrooms (mirrors, countertops, sinks, toilet, bathtub/shower), vacuuming, mopping, and kitchen cleaning

I firmly believe that all household members (toddlers and up) should have a role in keeping the house. A good place to start with this is by making a list of the jobs to be done and then noting which family members are capable of doing each job. This can help you determine age-appropriate cleaning contributions for each person.

Once you have that information, you can either assign tasks to each person or post the list and ask each family member to sign up for his or her share of the tasks. Personally, if your kids are old enough, I recommend the second option. It can really make a difference in creating a team spirit and helping the family members take ownership of the jobs they do.

You may want to color code the tasks to indicate the large, medium, and small jobs. Then, you could ask each person to sign up for one or two of each. It will also make sense to split some jobs into smaller tasks. For instance, rather than just listing “dusting,” you may have three or four separate areas of dusting on the list.

A lot of families like to create a chore routine that is predictable. This has the advantage of letting people get really good and efficient at certain jobs and also accurately predict how much time to set aside for their tasks. If you take this approach, a chore chart can be helpful. On the chart, you can either assign individual chores or zones of the house, with the person assigned to a particular zone completing all the chores in that area.

Chore charts do a great job of clarifying expectations and ensuring everything gets done. Plus everyone gets the satisfaction of crossing their items off the list. Who doesn’t love that!

Even if you have an established chore routine, it’s good to plan on rotating the chore assignments periodically so no one gets stuck with the “worst” chores and all children learn to do all the chores. And always try to ensure the chore assignments are well balanced, with all family members contributing their share.

Children too young to handle any chores on their own can be paired with an older child or adult to get a job done. It may take the cleaning mentor longer to do the task, but the investment is worthwhile. The little one can start developing new skills while also learning the importance of pitching in and enjoying the feeling of being included as a member of the team.

Especially if you have little ones cleaning, make sure you are using cleaners that are safe. Diluted white vinegar works well (one part vinegar to two parts water) on many surfaces and is nontoxic! I use it for countertops, cabinets, and windows all throughout the house. I like to add a few drops of essential oils – especially tea tree or peppermint, which repel the pesky little ants that get in the house sometimes.

I recommend revisiting expectations as needed. Your children’s standards of cleanliness may be quite a bit below your own. It’s good to periodically observe or inspect their work and retrain as needed.

Special cleaning projects

Deep cleaning floors, windows, blinds, baseboards, etc.

Apart from the regular cleaning, children can also participate in the special cleaning projects that arise throughout the year.

It’s important to respect your children’s time and give them plenty of advanced notice about any extra jobs you have for them. If you can also give them some flexibility about when the extra job gets done, that’s great. For instance, if you are planning some spring cleaning, and you’d like your middle schooler to take on the blinds on the upstairs windows, you can let him know about the task he’s assigned and ask him to get it done within the next two weeks. Just make sure you don’t spring it on him on a Saturday when he’s already looking forward to social plans, other planned tasks, or even a chance to relax. The way we lead the family team goes a long way toward making the members feel loved and respected. It also helps train them to become kind and respectful leaders themselves.

Daily tasks

Your children may have a daily routine that includes brushing their teeth, straightening up the bathroom, making their bed, and making their room neat. There may also be an end-of-the-day clean-up as well as little tasks throughout the day – such as putting away toys they’ve used and cleaning their dishes after meals.

Summer is a good time to shore up those daily routines, train your children on a couple of new skills, and add to their list of responsibilities as they mature into new capabilities.

Closing Thoughts

Remember that a small mess quickly leads to a big mess. It’s much easier to nip a growing mess in the bud.

On a busy day when things have kind of deteriorated and there just isn’t time to fully restore order to the house, a quick ten-minute clean-up with everybody contributing can make a surprisingly big difference. I remember days when I would look around and just feel discouraged by what seemed like a giant job waiting to be done right when my energy was at its lowest. On those evenings, we would set a timer, turn on some music and all get as much done as we could before the timer went off. We were always pleasantly surprised by what a dent we’d made in the disorder!

Household cleaning provides an opportunity to help your child understand the importance of working together and of being an asset to the team. This goes way beyond making daily life flow well and actually builds their character. It even reinforces spiritual truths such as considering others and being grateful. This is no small thing! Moms and dads, let’s make the most of it!

Check out Savvy's post about growing your child's life skills!

Smart Summer Focus - Engaging Ways to Empower Children with Life and Household Management Skills

Summer – yay! It’s a great time to for lots of things – more down time, more outdoor time, travel, barbecues, and picnics. It’s also an excellent time to emphasize some skills that are hard to give much attention to during the busy school year. While doing that, it can be the perfect time to adjust routines and make room for new responsibilities as children grow.

In this post, we’ll cover a bunch of life and household management skills that are worth focusing on during this season when family time is a little freer.

Daily Routine

Making beds, brushing teeth, straightening up personal spaces and common spaces

Do your children have a daily routine that they take ownership of? Establishing a wake-up routine can go a long way toward making mornings more peaceful and productive! Summer is a great time to establish these practices (if you don't already have them) or evaluate them (if you do have them).

During the summer, when mornings are a little less hectic, you may want to observe your child executing her responsibilities. She may have known how to brush her teeth for years, but is she doing a thorough job? Her room may be pretty neat, but is she tossing toys in a giant pile in the closet? There may be some room for growth, and the summer can be a good time to reestablish standards and also add new responsibilities if your child is ready.

Table Manners

chewing quietly with lips closed, saying please and thank-you, asking for things to be passed rather than reaching, showing thanks for the food provided and the people who have prepared it

Manners are an important way to show the value and importance of the people around us. Our good manners help make us a blessing to others. When teaching the basics of good manners, it’s helpful to acquaint your children with polite practices and also emphasize the reasons WHY they matter!

Meal Clean-up

clearing the table, putting away condiments, washing dishes, loading the dishwasher, wiping countertops, taking out the trash

Everyone aged two and up can contribute to cleaning up the kitchen after eating. After a family meal, teach children to jump in and help, taking initiative to do their part in getting the job done. Children can also work on cleaning up after themselves after breakfast and lunch. In our house, we had to regularly revisit the importance of getting dirty breakfast and lunch dishes into the dishwasher, not just placed in the sink for someone else to clean up. Take advantage of the summer lull to hone these skills!

Time Management

It's good to talk to your child about the planning required to be on time. If he is ready, you can start to transfer some of the ownership to him to make sure things are done on time (without rushing at the last minute). If you have somewhere to be, involve your child in determining how waking up, personal care, and transportation line up to to ensure arrival on time.

Budgeting

If your child is mature enough, you can talk to him about your family budget, giving as many financial details as you are comfortable with. Most importantly, help your child understand that there is a certain amount of money coming in each month and that much of it is committed to particular obligations (rent/mortgage, food, insurance, transportation, tuition, etc.). Sometimes, a family's income can sound like a huge amount to a young person - so much so it seems like there must be lots of excess cash to spend! It's helpful for them to gain understanding about how much the things in your family life actually cost.

Make sure to explain the importance of saving, especially for emergencies and retirement but also for specific things you are planning for the future. You can go further and explain the importance of establishing and maintaining good credit. Another tip - make sure your child takes a personal finance class in high school!

Lastly, when talking about money, it's great to talk about your values related to giving. Tithing, supporting local or global charities, and meeting needs that God brings to your attention through your church or neighborhood are important aspects of using our resources wisely. Your children will likely grow up with godly generosity as a core value if it has been a regular practice in your family.

Basic Cooking

Summer is a great time to enjoy some cooking projects. Besides making something fun like cookies, help your child learn to cook some basic meal components like eggs and pasta. Then, go as far beyond that as you both desire!

By the middle of high school (earlier is great!), it’s good to aim for your child to have the basic skills needed to prepare a decent meal for himself and a sibling or friend or two.

Basic Nutrition

While we’re on the topic of food, it’s so important to teach children basic information about nourishing their bodies. My children made their own lunches from an early age (kindergarten or first grade). They were required to have a protein and some fruit or veggies. (I never had to “require” carbs. One of mine would have made entire meals of only carbs, if allowed!) But I did limit their options to healthy ones and then have them assemble their lunches each day.

Whatever approach you take, teaching your child about the connection between good food choices and health and energy will bless them for the decades to come!

Laundry and Clothing Care

sorting, washing, drying, folding

Laundry is a good activity to do in a relaxed way with some good music in the background. You can include your children in the processes while also talking about how to keep clothes looking nice and how to do simple repairs. Also (and this is true even for older kids), they can probably use a reminder about what needs to be washed after each wearing (socks, underwear, etc.) and what can be hung up and worn again.

Family Emergency Plan

Does each child know her home address, Mom and Dad’s phone numbers, and what to do in an emergency? It’s good to review all this information at least once per year. Review how to handle a fire, a tornado, or an intruder, and talk about what your child should do if she finds herself in an unsafe or uncomfortable situation while away from home.

Housecleaning

There is a lot to talk about here, so we will devote next week’s blog post to this!

We've covered many things! It's helpful to realize that you don't have to make an elaborate plan to pass on life skills, but just create space for a little more training as you do everyday things.

In addition to all the things in this post, when children are around twelve and above, it’s wise to include them more in the processes of running the house. For instance, when you shut off the water supply as you leave on vacation, show your child how to do that and why it’s important.

There are so many things to learn! If we are intentional to pass them on little-by-little, we equip our children to live well independently. The time for that will be here before you know it!

It may seem like a lot, but all these things are a part of life! It’s great to help your child understand that his attitude goes a long way toward making daily tasks a drudgery or a joyful contribution to an orderly household that blesses everyone in it. A huge key to success is setting up systems and routines that work well for you all. With all the family members willingly doing their part, the household runs smoothly and no one bears more weight than others. The mutual support leads to a peaceful environment, which is a blessing to all!

Xo,

Christie

Check out Savvy's post about growing your child's cleaning skills!

Why You Should Help Your Child Rock Math Facts and How to Make Them FUN!

First of all, what are “math facts?” They are basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems that students can memorize as they would other facts (such as dates or names of people in history).

Many math curricula include drills and timed worksheets to help students store these facts away for use whenever they’re needed.

But don’t we care more about analytical skills than simple memorization? Well, maybe. But that’s not really the best question to ask. We don’t have to decide which of those two things we value more. Truly, both are tremendously important, and they work together. The mastery of math facts actually lays the foundation needed to do higher level math.

When your child is doing an algebra problem in middle school, he should have the freedom to think through the order of operations, the fractions, the decimals, the exponents, and all the other things without having to stop and work out with 7 x 6 is. Doing an algebra problem with math facts mastered is like running a race on a track. Doing it without the math facts in your tool belt is more like running the same distance on an obstacle course.

One vital thing to keep in mind is that, in helping your child memorize math facts, you are not only making higher level math accessible to her, but you’re also making the whole subject easier. When math facts have been learned, along with that fluency comes a reduction in frustration and the ability to enjoy problem solving more. (Don’t we all prefer working with fewer obstacles in our way?)

A good math curriculum (one that leads to future math success) should provide the building blocks for continued success in the subject.

In the early years, students should interact with the concepts of addition and subtraction with manipulatives, pictures, and stories. They can put groups together and take items away, using counting bears or, really, any objects you have around your house! Food items like grapes or chocolate chips can provide a fun way to practice addition and subtraction with preschoolers and kindergartners. Regular experience adding and taking away objects will soon solidify the concepts of addition and subtraction in a child’s mind.

With those concepts well established, your child can learn and memorize math facts over the next few years. He should start with the simplest problems, such as adding zero. He may review a whole set of flash cards or complete a worksheet (timed or not) with problems like 1+0= ___, 2+0= ___, and so on. Once he has mastered those, he’s ready to move onto adding one, then adding two, etc.

The same approach should be taken with subtraction and then multiplication and division, once those concepts are introduced and understood.

If you are a homeschooler, I highly recommend using a curriculum that has math fact practice built in. If your child is in school and her math curriculum does not emphasize memorizing math facts, you can definitely cover this at home! You’ll be equipping your child with resources that will smooth out the path ahead as she progresses on to more intricate math problems with multiple steps.

What is the best way to learn and practice math facts? Tried and true methods include flash cards and worksheets, and they really do accomplish the job.

There are ways to add fun to these basic learning tools. In our family, we enjoyed throwing in some random cards with the math flash cards. I made cards with stick people doing different things like jumping jacks and somersaults. When we got to those cards, my kids would do what the stick man did. It kept the flash card drills a little more lively.

With worksheets, a progress chart with stickers can be very motivating. Add in some celebrations when milestones are achieved, especially if those achievements required some perseverance.

For an easy spin on practicing the different groups, or families, of math facts, take the basic concept of flashcards and use it with sidewalk chalk, bingo cards, or white board competitions among siblings or friends. You can slip in extra elements like throwing items into a basket or sprinting to a certain spot to get the math problem read to add some physical activity and competition.

There are also some excellent electronic math fact resources. Website-based games like this one work well. And you’ll easily find a variety of math fact apps for phones or iPads. These have the advantage of being done independently. Your child can practice while you are busy with something else, which is a boon! We love to have independent activities among our mom tools!

Board games can be a fun way to practice math facts. Games like this one are good for older students who have been introduced to all the math facts and could benefit from practicing them.

One last thought – although drills and memorization are not as exciting as more active, critical-thinking-based, hands-on lessons, they really are a powerful workhorse. And, in addition to serving as a priceless resource as your child progresses in math, they also represent simple and straightforward skills with measurable progress you can acknowledge and celebrate. That is good for you and your child. Learning is often challenging! It’s helpful for your child to have something he can consistently conquer, put in his tool kit and carry with him into the next stage.