Short of Captain Von Trapp’s whistle, I had tried just about everything known to mom to get my kids to do their chores, to do them well, and to do them on time (which in mommy-tongue means: when I wanted it done.) I finally knelt down and asked for help, and then---did my kid’s chores. And right in the middle of a squirt of Clorox into the toilet – a hint of an idea bubbled up. Mother –" it said – “teach your children that chores are an opportunity to learn and become really accomplished at something of worth.
With my creative river suddenly running like springtime, it was easy to draft up a document that we used every Saturday for years. It looked like this:
1.Chore____Student / Apprentice / Professional / Expert / Teacher
2.Chore____Student / Apprentice / Professional / Expert / Teacher
3.Chore____Student / Apprentice / Professional / Expert / Teacher
Here’s how it worked…

Part II (their favorite part) was about the “ratings”. When each chore was completed, I and the worker-bee would decide which rating the job fit under. For instance, if the child watched ME scrub the toilet as I explained the ins and outs of the job, he/she was, for that day, a “STUDENT”.
If, on the other hand, it was me who watched the CHILD scrub the toilet, offering helpful suggestions as needed, then, for that job that day, he/she was an “APPRENTICE”.
When the child eventually

Lastly, and ultimately, if our worker-bee had been something of an “EXPERT” or “PROFESSIONAL” for a while, he/she had the prerogative of “graduating” from that particular assignment: passing it onto a sibling by becoming their “TEACHER” (si

Creative parenting is fun and rewarding: share or link your ideas. Here’s a good one: "Toy catalog" at Making Bread.
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