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lf you are homeschooling I think it is extremely important that the whole family works as a team and that they are all aware that they are important members of that team. Our children know that we cannot homeschool them without their co-operation and that that co-operation includes having to do chores.
Breadmaking (standing on a stool).
For this reason, from the age of five, all our children have begun to help out around the house. When my daughters were in school and coming home tired everyday I did everything for them, to allow them what little free time they had to play. Sadly this reinforces the parent / child roles within the family and does little to promote mutual care. However if your children are home schooled, 30 minutes to an hour of chores a day seems emminently reasonable. In fact I would say that if you do not encourage your children to help out, you are presenting them with a poor role model. Initially getting children to help out with chores is harder work than doing it yourself but the effort and patience involved in training is soon repaid. Also the children's self esteem is raised when they become competant at something and know that they are relied on to contribute to the family's wellbeing.
I have to admit that Max my youngest child spent the first 3 months of his washing up career doing the dishes in tear water and I felt terribly cruel making a five year old wash up 5 plastic plates and cups. But since his siblings had all managed this very simple chore I chose not to let him off. He doesn't seem to have suffered permanant damage and is now perfectly cheerful about washing up, even swapping sometimes with his brother. He enjoys the responsibility and the knowledge that he is an angel.
One point I must make about washing up is that Ceili and Holly have done the evening washing up for years. If visiting relatives or friends offered to wash up in the evening my natural hospitality would have me saying "Oh don't worry the girls will do that!" Even worse, and I cringe here, I would perhaps say "Oh no you can't wash up it will disrupt the rota!" (of two?). Well the girls have taken me quite rightly to task on this and now if anyone offers to wash up in the evening I hope they mean it! So the point I'm trying to make is that I think it is reasonable to expect your children to do chores as part of the family team, but it is not reasonable to show them off, or for the parent to be a dictator.
I don't think you should ever expect your children to do something that you are not willing to do yourself (ie clean the toilet). Also always include yourself on a rota of chores. It is important for your children to see you participating in the same work (preferably without grumbling!) that you expect them to do.
I think one other very important issue with doing chores is that it teaches us all delayed gratification. We all aim to get our chores done early on in the day, so that the rest of the day is freetime.
Chores that we get / have got our kids to do or help out with include;
Breadmaking,
Washing up (switch to melamine plates and bowls),
Tidying,
Hoovering,
Sorting out the washing,
Weeding the garden,
Horse poo collecting,
Planting trees,
Pointing walls,
Painting and decorating,
Car washing,
Making dinner,
Cleaning bathroom (worst chore),
Fruit picking,
Jam making,
Sawing and splitting fire wood,
Making bird boxes,
Shopping.
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"Work is love made visible." Kahlil Gibran (1883 -1931)
"The highest reward for a mans toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it" John Ruskin 1819 -1900
"The most fruitful of all the arts is living well" Cicero (106 - 43 BC)
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