Show Me The Money...Show ME The Work!

Do your children do chores around the house? My answer is a quick yes! They are also not known as chores over here, but simply as must-do's (of course the kids still refer to them as chores!!). It is something that is ingrained daily in their activity and something that is expected of them. The tasks of course are age appropriate and instill in them a work ethic. As a stay at home mom, they see the most of me and I want to show them that there is work to be done at home as well, not just outside of the home like Daddy. Knowing all this work will hopefully teach my little men that their wives are not just sitting around all day, should they choose the stay at home route in their life as well. I also hope it teaches my daughter the value of a life at home, even though at the moment she is insistent in no marriage and a future working for our government. 

The big question is, do I pay them for their chores? The simple answer is NO. My kids are learning that the things that need to get done around the house are things that there is no payment for, we do them for the ability to live in a clean home and have a roof over our head. My children do get money for doing chores at my the home of my parents, because those are optional chores. Once family members started seeing them work there, they were offered small jobs at other places as well. My children also have a yearly Lemonade Stand in which they earn money as well. When there are big projects going on (we are in the midst of a remodel) and the kids help out with that stuff, we always reward them with some money. When they are given money for ANYTHING, they are asked to split it in 3 ways. This is for:
1. Savings Account (Their college is paid for, we are asking them to begin saving for a downpayment on a home)
2. The Church or charity of their choice (they have their own church envelopes in which they put in their personal information.
3. Themselves, this is their fun money that at the moment they are all saving for tickets to Universal Studios! (We are doing 10 days in Disney and the kids asked to do US as well, we told them with all the money being spent on Disney, it was up to them! 1 son has his money already and the other 2 are halfway there!)

What type of work do my kids do?
Autumn -Age 9 - Fix Bed and Clean room daily, do her laundry once a week, sweep dining room and living every other day, put away clean dishes every other day, clean kids bathroom weekly, clear dinner table every other day.
Gabriel - Age 8- Fix Bed and Clean room daily, do own laundry once a week, sweep dining room and living room every other day, empty all house garbage cans and take out trash, clear dinner table every other day.

Roman - Age 6 - Fix Bed and Clean Room daily, take laundry downstairs daily, sweep kitchen every other day, spray and wipe down tables daily, set dinner table, keep library shelves dusted weekly.
ALL must keep playroom tidy daily and then a deep clean once a week.

Remember to enjoy every moment my friends and please share what you do in your home!

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Tuesday's Tools

I've been a busy Mama getting the tools out of a bin and onto a tool wall for the kids! Let me tell you, their face was like Christmas morning when they first saw it all. Pegboard and some framing scrap wood was all I needed for this simple project and came out to less than $5.00 as we had the hooks at home already. 

Mounting measuring tapes becomes an easy job when you add a thin metal strip behind 2 small blocks of wood and then you just use the clip on the measuring tape to hang it on.

We've been doing some work around the house and the little guy absolutely loves to help out! He gets his hat, clips his measuring tape to his pants and pencil, so he's ready to go.

Do you know how easy it is to make a plinko game? Pegboard, wood dowels and some scrap wood is all you need! The kids absolutely love this game and it's perfect to use indoors or out!

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Sorting Fun

As you read in Monday's post, we are working with marshmallows this week! Today, we woke up to SNOW in the Midwest! Yup, we were wearing shorts last week and now it's back to Winter coats and sweaters underneath! YIKES! It was definitely an indoor learning day for the little tater tot!

You've seen him before, when he first learned how to use my craft punch! He had a blast just punching anything that was in the scrap bin! The circles were so cute and fun, I had to keep them for other projects!! We made some great stuff and I will continue to share them in future posts!

Materials:

We used a 1.5 inch punch, marker, plastic eggs and egg carton for this project.
I numbered each circle with 1 number 1-12.

We only used half of an egg in each of the holes and then put 1 circle in each one (yellow paper made them look like yolks!).

I handed him a bowl of marshmallows and told him to put the same amount of marshmallows in each numbered egg. It got tricky when it got to 8 and above, but it was still a lot of fun!!
Share your sorting activities in the comments!!

~Michelle!~

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