I jokingly refer to their chores as “earning their keep”
We had a huge storm come through last week and part of the past weekend we spent cleaning up the damage. We had tons of branches and sticks to pick up from around the yard, neccesitating many trips back and forth to the fire pit.
The person who was the most excited to help? The three year old, of course, who’s enthusiasm is greater than his ability. I don’t think anyone else threw a temper tantrum over a branch being too heavy to carry “all by myself”
Just want to say horay for someone else who has helpers. Our family has horses and we love them to death, however times right now are tough and I asked my barn manger if there was any chores we could do around the barn to knock money off. She came up with some and one is clearing the thistle bushes out of the pasture, its not a great job, but it will help pay for the board. Yesterday my 7 year old wanted to go see them and ride, I explained we had to work for a while and had until Sunday to get this cleared. She pitched in for a while. Because they are very pokey she used the pitchfork to gather and pile all the ones we chopped down. I gave her an option of riding for about 20 minutes yesterday and 20 minutes on Friday by her self or riding just on Friday for longer with me or her dad riding our horses with her. she chose to ride by herself 20 minutes each day. Mean while she continued to clear out and pile the thistles and she got to do her riding on her horse. It made a huge difference in the time I had to continue to chop down bushes not having to go back and pick them up. The learn responsiblity and can do some of the work that needs to get done.
Comment by Lightningbell — June 26, 2008 @ 1:43 pm
This sounds so much like my 2 yr old. She will volunteer faster than her 5 yr old sister. Even if the job is twice as big as she is!!
Thanks for sharing!!
Comment by Rachel — September 17, 2008 @ 1:28 am