A couple of years ago my husband and I became convicted that we were not instilling the work ethics in our children that we wished to teach them. We realized that the only work our did was about 15 minutes of chores. We have changed that and now our children spend several hours a week doing household chores. This has led to character training, practical living training and even occasional academic training.

Teaching them to be hard workers has many benefits. It instills good work ethics. It teaches them how to do these practical skills. Hopefully, it will teach them to have a servant's heart. Working side by side with my children has led to many conversations that we would probably not have had otherwise.

One verse that I often quote to our children is, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Sometimes they struggle with laziness and need to be encouraged to do their work and do it well. Sometimes they need more "motivation" than a Bible verse. I don't excuse laziness in my children but I can relate to it. As a teenager I was very lazy and felt "put upon" if my Mom asked me to do the dishes or any other job I did not like. The Lord took care of my lazy attitude by making me the homeschooling mother of five! I have many areas in my life that I need to work on but laziness is certainly not one of them!

With the exception of the work the "Kitchen Helper" of the day does, most of the chores, at our house, are done right after lunch. I know many homeschooling families do the chores first thing in the morning but I find that my children do better if we have the academic part of homeschooling in the morning when their minds are fresh.

I would love to say that Chore Time always goes well with each child doing a great job on their given chores and everyone having a joyful attitude as they work. We DO have days like that but some days are like today. This is how our chore time went today:

During the part of Chore Time that I am writing about our oldest son, Joshua, was to sweep the kitchen, living room, and hall floors (we have hardwood floors). Joseph was to clean the bathroom. Josiah was "Kitchen Helper" so he did his chores before and after meals instead of during this time. Jessica was to put the dry silverware away. Two year old Jennifer was playing with her little box of blocks.

As the Joshua was sweeping Josiah (the "Kitchen Helper") was not looking where he was going and walked through the pile of dust, scattering it everywhere. Looking back, I should have had him redo the sweeping but at that moment my mind was focused on reminding Jessica not to touch the sharp knives. Joshua sighed and somewhat patiently began the sweeping process all over again.

As I began dusting my collection of Precious Moments it suddenly occurred to me that Joseph seemed to be having a little bit TOO much fun cleaning the bathroom. Though I certainly encourage a joyful attitude while working, the giggling sounds coming from the bathroom made me nervous. I hurried down the hall into the bathroom to see him swinging the wet rag around and around to watch the water spray off of it in every direction. Josiah was watching and giggling. I sternly reminded the one who is SUPPOSED to be cleaning the bathroom about the correct way to clean the bathroom and told him to clean up all the water he had managed to spill on the floor and splatter on the walls. I then send his "cheerleader" to wipe the kitchen counters.

Leaving the bathroom, I decided to check on Jessica. As I glanced in the silverware drawer I noticed that the silverware was all mixed up in the tray. She has done this chore many times and knows how to put the spoons, forks and butter knives into the right "slots" so I questioned her about it. She replied, "Oh, Mommy, I wanted to do it different today." Much to her disappointment, I told her that she needed to put the silverware back in the right slots. 

As I went back to dusting the Precious Moments three things happened at once. Joshua said, "Mom, the broom handle just came off!", Joseph called from the bathroom, "Mom, Jennifer is playing in the toilet!" and there was a loud crash from the kitchen Jessica accidentally pulled the whole silverware drawer out. It was definitely one of those days when doing it myself would have been easier!!

I already mentioned the reasons that chores are good for the children but having their help certainly helps me, too, in spite of days like today. Any homeschooling mother can tell you that the housework is never caught up. By the time I school the children, fix the meals, do the laundry, read to the children for an hour and exercise (my husband and I have both agreed that all these things must take priority over housework) there is very little time left for cleaning. Though the younger children are still in the "training" period of their chores, our older two sons, who are eleven and eight, are already USUALLY a big help to me. No, I still don't stay caught up on housework, but I would be even further behind without their help. My children are still quite young and I know that, if I can get through these years of training, in a few years they will all be a huge help to me.

One thing that I have learned over the years is that work is a good thing. (Alright, I confess that when I have been nine months pregnant, I do not always see work as a good thing!) For me, work means that I have a wonderful husband and five precious children. Work means that I am healthy enough to be able to do it. My desire is that my children will also come to see work in a positive light and realize that it is a good thing!

If you feel it would be an encouragement or a blessing to someone, you have the Stilwell's permission to forward this article in its entirety. They just ask that you include this note at the bottom of the article with their name and e-mail address (Jeff and Kim Stilwell, jkstilwell@juno.com) in case someone wishes to contact them. Thank you.

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