Our kids are at home for summer daycare and I’ve been giving them a short list of chores to get done each day before I get home from work. I tend to get a lot of astonished looks when chatting about chores with other parents (at least, other parents who don’t read here regularly) followed immediately by, “How old are your kids again?” Come on, folks, getting yourself dressed and brushing your own teeth are not chores–especially if you’re getting paid an “allowance” for it!

{Can I be honest for a minute? I don’t really like the term “chores” in relation to what our crew contributes around here. We use it because it’s short and sort of historic and fits with the atmosphere we cultivate through books and movies in our home. But I would use “responsibilities” or “jobs” just as happily. The jobs we assign aren’t just kids-only busy work. They are running-a-household responsibilities.}

My Ladybug scrubbing and filing the chicken waterer.

Today I’m linking up with Many Little Blessings with a Top 10 list of what our crew, at 4, 5, and 7 years old, accomplishes pretty much daily with minimal supervision.

1. Empty the dishwasher. This is Ladybug’s job every day. (I do the loading, that’s a whole separate skill set!)

2. Dry and put away the pots, pans, and lids. This is Speedracer’s newest job and he’s done quite well with it. The cabinet is down low and the pots and pans are less fragile than the other dishes.

3. Laundry. All 3 can do this, but it tends to fall to the boys more. They can all sort clothes, fill the washer, move loads to the dryer, start the dryer, and move the dry clothes to the couch. Only the Ladybug is allowed to add soap and change the washer settings unsupervised, right now though. And the Cowboy is the only one that is any good at folding! {grin}

And here she is filling a cow watering trough.

4. Feed and water dog and cat. Feeding the cat is the first official chore everyone starts out with.

5. Fill water troughs. All 3 of them can do this alone from start to finish for all the fields by the house.

6. Feed chickens, gather and wash the eggs. They’ve all been doing this one practically from the time they could walk. The Ladybug is the only egg washer right now though. It’s a quality control issue.

7. Little trash cans. This is now Speedracer’s job. I give him a big trash bag, he empties the bathroom and bedroom cans into it, then puts clean bags in those cans.

I discovered that she even knows how to switch hoses at the spigot now to reach different fields!

8. Kitchen trash. The Ladybug and Cowboy cover this one with me. It includes spraying the empty can with Lysol, putting in a fresh bag, and carrying the full one outside.

9. Sweep the floor. The Ladybug does this one, but it’s one that needs more supervision. And patience.It’s a big job and it needs to be done every day. If she does it, I do not ever re-do a spot in front of her. I might point a spot out to her, but I’m not going to discourage her by acting like she didn’t do a good job. .

10. Scrub sinks and toilets. I spray cleaner in the toilet and all 3 know how to scrub with the toilet brush and wipe down. Before they are old enough to use Clorox wipes, I just handed them a baby wipe–which is also how they learned to help wipe the baseboard, coffee tables, and hardwood floors. Baby wipes clean anything!

Here's my Cowboy out helping work sheep last weekend.

I think the key to getting your kids to do real work is to come along them and show them that it’s not busy work. It’s not “kids” work. It’s simply work that has to be done and we all share in doing it because we all share in living here.

That and encouragement. Correct if necessary (gently, please!), but don’t discourage! Doing their chores every day is very important to Mr. Fix-It. So I try to catch him at the door, or on the phone before he gets home, and give him some quick pointers on what the kids accomplished that day. That way he can praise them for it–and keep from hurting anyone’s feelings by accident! No one likes to spend 20 minutes sweeping the floor and have someone point out the one crumb they missed!

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for our {Family Connections} link up and find some new ideas for having fun after your work is done!