Teaching Our Children to Do Chores

I was at my friend Jen's home, when I caught sight of this gem box! I had to take a photo and share it with you!!!

In our home we use chore packs which I blogged about earlier. I copied this method from the Duggar's Show (the Duggar's use the Maxwell's system from Managers of Their Chores).


But in my friend Jen's home, they are using the gem method! Here's the box she has made of gems and this is how it works:

Each time she sees something that needs to be done - she asks one of her girls to please do the task. When they are finished she has them take a gem out of the box and drop it into their own cup. If it was a minor task she has them get a 10 cent gem. If it was a major task they pick a 50 cent gem. At the end of the week, she tallies up the gems total value and gives the children their allowance and then they start over fresh the next week.


If I remember correctly, she also awards them with gems for other good deeds that may go unnoticed. If they help without asking she would award them with a gem. This is a simple method for someone who has groan to loathe charts (I loathe charts because I am terribly inconsistent with them!)


As I walked through Jen's kitchen I saw another interesting system on the window sill! These cups sat there:
I again inquired about her cups and she shared how she moves the marbles from cup to cup based on good and bad behavior. This visual reminder that mommy is watching and daddy can see how the day went is an incentive to do what is right and gain praise rather than do the things that make mommy and daddy sad.


Mrs. Joseph Wood (a blogging mommy of 10!) speaks about chores over at A Moment with MOM and she says:

From the moment my children are born we teach them that they have a vital role in the family. Our family can not do all that God has planned for us if we do not all work together in harmony. We continually express the Biblical directive to serve others, esteem others, and to lay down our lives for one another. My husband and I have had to be the first example of this type of love and service. We were created to serve for His Glory and we are honored to do so!

In fact in my home, there is no greater honor to strive for than to be called, A Servant of Christ. That is the highest honor that we can attain! Therefore, we must learn to crucify our selfish desires and lay down our lives daily for each other… starting right here in our home!

Don’t fool yourself in thinking that your child can be so good and serve so well in public but is quite the opposite in your home. Sometimes you will see this type of “eye service” in children but that is the not the heart work that God desires. If a child truly has a heart of service they will be serving at home first and then in their church, community and the world. If they can not serve in the home then all they do in the public eye is of little worth.

Take the time today to "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it" Proverbs 22:6.


Walk with the King!