Excellent Articles About Teaching Kids to Work

I'm on a push right now to continue to motivate my kids to become professional happy helpers. The goal is that they will eventually be self-motivated to work and help out around the house. This means tuning into their work habits and putting in the time to teach and train them. I was just realizing that though they are usually enthusiastic helpers, there is so much more they could be doing and their initiative has a lot of room to grow. As the kids were growing up I made the mistake of cleaning up after them a lot because it was the quickest thing to do. Ok, so it's never too late and I have decided that I will take the time to teach my kiddos the right way to work no matter how long it takes! Teaching a kid the correct way to clean is often quite time consuming--but it is well worth the effort! Tonight, as I was tucking my kids in bed, I asked Kyle, my five year-old, what the highlight of his day was. He smiled really big and then told me, "when I was working in the yard with daddy."

I found a BLOG yesterday which I thought was interesting. I didn't have time to do much more than skim over the posts and I liked what I saw. The BLOG's called "The Lazy Organizer" but this full-time mom is definitely not lazy! Anway, she wrote some good articles about teaching kids to work. I read the first two and was able to glean some tips. Here are the links to the series of articles for you to check out:

Part I, Whose Job is It?
Part II, Getting Rid of the Clutter
Part III, Let Them Help
Part IV, It Takes Time
Part V, Work Together
Part VI, Learn to Practice
Part VII, Make it Easy

Learning Styles and Work Habits

I'm learning to take the time to meditate and pray about my kids' personalities and individual needs. I see that I can't compare them to each other or other kids. A method that works for one might not work for the other. Each is unique and has their own way of learning from life and it's imperative that I understand this! When it comes to the kids' work habits I sometimes run a bit short of patience. Well, when I stop and pray, I'm shown the way. Often the key to keeping myself from feeling like a nag is to stop talking (more like yelling in some cases) so much and pointing out every little thing the kids missed doing. Instead, when I quietly try to find a way to teach the kids how to do better or encourage them for what they did do, clean up times go more smoothly.

I found these notes recently:

Research has helped educators identify numerous distinct learning preferences in people. At home you can also identify some of your child's preferred ways of gathering information by asking the following questions.

"Would you rather work by yourself, with a friend, or with Mom or Dad?"
Style: Individual, Group, or Family

"Should we use a chart to show your responsibilities, or can I just tell you what you should do?"
Style: Reader or Listener

"Do you want me to explain carefully how to wash the car or would you rather read & follow the directions on the can of car wash yourself?"
Style: Detailed Instruction or Discovery

Consider the example of Erica, an eight-year-old, who spends every free minute with her nose in a book. Her mother's words seem to go in one ear & out the other. Erica's style is the written word. A note that lists her job assignments will have more impact than will constantly telling her what must be done. (Most of my kids are like Erica!) In the same family, John likes to talk, & to listen intently as his father reads to him. John can be told what needs to be done & does it--he is a listener! Some children like to work with a group of people. For them a "family clean-up hour" will produce more help than an assignment to work alone. Other children enjoy private time & do an excellent job working independently.