“Before I knew it, it was time to set the table for lunch. Josiah and I raced to see who could get done with our jobs first. I slowed down at the end so Josiah could catch up—then I let him win! Mommy took me into her room alone and gave me a million hugs. She said she was so happy that I was learning to see how others feel—and that I make Josiah feel important. I think she’ll probably tell Daddy, and he’ll say, “Jonathan, Mommy told me a good report about you!” I love it when he says that—he always has a big smile on his face and tears in his eyes when he does.”*
–All of the “Help” and “Chores on his Own” listed in yesterday’s post (pre k/k list—ages 5 and 6)
–“Help”**:
1. Weekly family cleaning days—use this weekly cleaning time to teach more and more skills to this age group
2. Unload and put away all groceries
3. Continue helping with baking, giving more and more responsibilities, such as shaping loaves, mixing cookie dough (and learning to make cookies, brownies from a mix, etc. all by himself)
4. Learn how to operate stove and oven by himself (after having worked with you in the kitchen for previous few years)
5. Continue with meal preparation, working towards giving anything to the child as his own as is possible
6. Gardening together—more responsibilities, such as snapping beans, etc.
7. More produce cleaning and preparation—including strawberry stemming, apple peeling, peach peeling, carrot peeling, etc.
8. Work on using kitchen appliances, such as blender, mixer, electric skillet, crock pot, and griddle—wait on food processor, deep fryer, or other more dangerous appliances; do not trust children under fourteen or so to deep fry; they do not have the thinking skills and can easily forget that their French fries are in the fryer; hot grease is extremely dangerous (Okay…I admit it; I nearly burned down the kitchen ten years ago when I put four mozzarella sticks in to fry for me and one child and went into the bathroom to do laundry and forgot about it. Grease fires make really high flames!)
9. Car washing
10. Helping with big cooking for your family or for others in need, such as potato peeling; crushing nuts, cereal, crackers, etc; cubing meats and/or cheeses; shredded boneless chicken (I have found that it takes a lot of skill and attention to detail to debone and shred chicken, so I do not have my younger children work with bone-in chicken. There’s too much danger of leaving small bones on the chicken.); layering simple casseroles; stirring large mixtures; dumping ingredients from a simple list, such as the cottage cheese, egg, Parmesan cheese, etc. for lasagna; shaping things, such as meat balls, salmon patties, etc;
11. Learn to mow, depending on age and maturity of child, your equipment, etc.
12. Help scrub kitchen appliances, such as fruit bin from refrigerator, inside of microwave, etc. with direction and oversight
13. Help clean out buildings, shed, garage, etc.
14. Window cleaning
15. Packing for trips
–Chores on his Own:
1. Clear table, do dishes, and clean kitchen after a meal—start out with one of these alone, then two of them, and by the end of this age period, shoot for child being able to do all of this for the evening meal
2. Fold up loads of laundry from start to finish, including putting away
3. Prepare simple microwave or oven casseroles, such as hamburger stew (with hamburger, frozen veggies, soups, etc.); tuna casserole, chili, chicken stew (with chicken breasts cooked in crock pot then frozen veggies, soups, etc. all stirred together and baked); etc.
4. Cut up and make complete lettuce and fruit salads, including peeling and cutting fruits
5. Mop with safe (not strong) cleaners
6. Clean bath tub and/or shower (again, only if using not-too-strong cleaners, such as those available from Don Aslett’s Cleaning Center (see resource post two days ago)
7. Be responsible for keeping an area weed-free in the summer, such as around shrubs against the house
8. Be responsible for either breakfast or lunch a few times a week (This works best if you choose four to six menus that you teach the child to make well and consistently.***)
9. Clean out shed or porch
10. Vacuuming corners and furniture with hose
11. Dishes from start to finish (except for challenging pans that they left to soak for someone older)
12. Daily bathroom cleaning (See Don Aslett’s “3 Minute Bathroom Cleaning,” which we taught our children to do daily.)
13. Rake yard
14. Take garbage out
15. Learn to make a few dishes from start to finish that become the child’s “specialty”***
16. Simple, “daily” type of refrigerator cleaning/organizing
17. Clean mirrors
18. Babysitting and child care skills under your supervision (with adult still in the home)
19. Packing of book bag, activities’ bag, etc.
*For the complete story of “Jonathan’s Journal, follow this link: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/03/day-seventy-eight-introducing-jonathans.html
**If you have been reading PP 365 long, you probably remember that we focused on giving our children entire chores/areas rather than just having them “help” forever….this builds self-esteem, responsibility, and skills; however, in the toddler/pre k/k years, “helping” is what he will primarily do. Anything you can “give” your early elementary child (i.e. daily table setting for all meals or daily dishwashing unloading and loading two times, etc.) will help him towards more and more responsibility.
***Once our children started cooking simple foods, I taught them their “specialties”—things they always made. These included things we took to events, such as hot Mex dip, layered Mex dip, doubled eggs, seven layered salad, mashed potatoes, sloppy joes, brownies, cookie bars, cupcakes, vegetable pizza, etc. as well as things that they always made for “their” meal (when it was their turn to cook), such as pancakes, hamburgers, eggs, French toast, grilled cheese, tuna casserole, etc. This way each person had his or her specialties that we could turn to. I moved these “specialties” down as a child became adept at cooking and the older child could make something more difficult. I found it was important to write my recipes in “child-friendly” form—with a numbered list of steps beneath each one.
