I have finally succeeded in a establishing routine chore for Brielle. I have tried before, but it has ended up that I have spent 6 times the amount of time it would have taken if I had just done it myself and I have done most of it myself anyway. Now don't get me wrong, both Brielle and Nathan enjoy helping and and are very good to help clean up their toys etc, but in this case she is not cleaning up a mess that she has made, she is taking over a normal household responsibility. Recently, when I unload the dishwasher I call Brielle and she runs to the kitchen, pulls a chair over to the silverware drawer, and puts all the silverware away! No begging, pleading or hand-holding required! Yipee! She does a great job of sorting out the big and little spoons and the big and little forks. If something happened to find its way into the "wrong spot" she quickly corrects the situation. As simple as it is, it really feels like she is lightening my load and her exclamation of "I DID IT!" when she is done is evidence that she enjoys the accomplishment of helping out as well. I would love other ideas. What chores have you had success in getting a 3 year old, or an 18 month old for that matter, to help out with?
Nathan's self-appointed chore is "door closing". He goes around the house making sure that all the doors are closed.
3 comments:
Kristen I came across your blog on Joy's. I would love to invite you to mine but I need your email address, so email me at mitch.freed@gmail.com! The silverware was probably the first real chore I gave my kids too. And I only did the silverware because they couldn't do the plates, cups, etc. without climbing on the counter and I didn't want that.
Luke sometimes helps me with the laundry, he loves loading the clothes into the washer and pulling the clothes out of the dryer - especially handy when you're prego. You could give her all the socks from the wash and have her put them into pairs? Luke also helps with the dishes in the dishwasher, it makes it so I do it super fast because I have to grab the plates and bowls from him really fast!!
It's SO nice when they get old enough to really help when they "help". I'm glad Brielle's made it to that stage!
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