Lately, I’ve started a system where each of our boys has a couple of new chores he must do each day. Yes, even the 4-year-old. I instituted this because I actually cannot keep up with the housekeeping all myself anyway.

I pay them a quarter for each of those jobs, plus I give them extra coins when they exhibit a wonderful attitude.

I’m able to pay them on the spot because I have a big juice jug full of change.

This has been working extremely well for us. Though yes, I always inspect their work, and make them fix things they’ve skipped over, like little Lego men peeking out from under the sofa.

Killing bugs for mom also counts as a chore. The 3 of them teamed up to kill the cicada under that stack of books! That particular job was free of charge. Ha!

Today I have asked Josh Wilson, of FaithFamilyFinance.com, to fill us in on why paying children for chores is a MARVELOUS idea, not just for us, but for our kids too….

Why Is It a Good Idea to Pay Your Kids for Chores?

One financial decision you will need to make with your children is if you should pay your children to do chores. There are several different reasons why this is a good idea. For starters, they can learn valuable life lessons. If you are on the fence about paying your children for chores, read more to find out why it can be a good idea.

Adults Work for Money

Adults work to earn money because they have bills to pay. Paying children for chores teaches them the value of work. They can learn about the incentive of working harder to earn more money. Just as you don’t get paid if you don’t work, you have the option not to pay your child if they don’t complete their chores on schedule.

Until your children are old enough to get a part-time job, paying your children for chores can be a good way to allow your children to work for a goal instead of simply being given everything they want.

[clickToTweet tweet=”It’s a great way to teach your kids to work for a goal rather than being given everything! ” quote=”It’s a great way to teach your kids to work for a goal rather than being given everything! via @AprilandAlan storiesofourboys.com #responsibiity”]

Chores Teach Commitment

Chores can consist of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Even if you decide not to pay your child for some everyday chores, money is a strong incentive to remain committed for additional chores. Your children can establish a work ethic early on.

Offering to pay your child for optional tasks that you don’t necessarily have to do is a good starting place. By not paying your child for every single chore they complete, you can reward them for their efforts while avoiding the entitlement spirit of thinking they “must” get paid for every chore or they won’t do it.

Chores Can Instill Entrepreneurship

Depending on your child’s personality, paying for chores can instill a level of entrepreneurship. By realizing they can make money by providing a solution to a need, completing chores in this case, they may decide to pursue their own side hustle as they grow older.

For example, if you pay them to mow the lawn, they might ask your neighbors to mow their lawns for cash. During the winter, they might offer to shovel driveways and sidewalks for extra cash. If you only pay them an allowance for not doing chores, they might miss out on these additional money-making opportunities.

Paying for Chores Establishes Expectations

As the parent, you can set the expectations for when your children will be paid for their chores. If your children don’t do it right the first time, have them redo the task to your satisfaction. Chores can be an excellent opportunity to learn attention to detail and working efficiently to maximize their earning potential.

Remember to consider your child’s age and experience when setting expectations. Just as there is a learning curve when you start a new job, your children will need to master new skills as well. As they mature, you can increase your expectations and maybe even give them a raise as well.

Chores Can Encourage Communication

Communication is a two-way street in every relationship. Paying for chores can teach your children communication skills that can benefit them in the professional world. On payday, you can review your child’s performance and encourage them or tell them how they can improve.

Your child can also improve their communication skills because they will learn how to accept feedback, good and bad, from their superiors. Chores can also teach negotiation. Your child might offer to perform additional tasks if they are trying to increase their income.

Children Can Learn Money Management Skills

Earning money allows children the opportunity to learn the value of saving money for future purchases and accomplishing other financial goals. If you offer them additional money for completing extra tasks, your children can have an additional incentive to work hard to achieve their goals sooner.

In addition to paying your children for chores, you can also teach them budgeting and banking. Instead of just giving them money and letting them go on a spending spree, you can have them divide their paycheck into saving, spending, and giving.

For example, you can help your kids open up a savings account and they can watch as their interest grows. Each month opens the doors for a new learning experience, and even earnings for your children. You should likely use an online account with low minimums and fees to help you children keep more of their money. My children use Capital One which has an account created just for them. This will prepare them for adulthood when a portion of each paycheck goes to taxes and living expenses.

Summary

Paying children for chores is one of the most debated topics about parenting. While no parent is required to pay for chores, doing so can teach your child valuable life lessons. If you decide to pay your child, remember that you don’t have to pay them for every single chore, and you can also base the payment on their performance.

Josh Wilson is the owner of a start-up personal finance blog, Family Faith Finance. Check out his blog and learn more about his journey through life.

The post Why Is It a Good Idea to Pay Your Kids for Chores? appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Hello, friends! April is resting a powerful case of tendonitis, so Edna Thompson, of the United Kingdom, is sharing tips with us on age appropriate chores for kids today.

Everybody knows that it is not an easy task to maintain a clean and organized home with kids around. But not necessarily! Try including your kids in the cleaning and organizing process. Let them help you clean the mess they make. Of course, depending on how old your child is, there are different chores they can do. But even the younger ones can be put to work. Give them easy to do tasks turned into a game. This way they will be engaged, and instead of making a mess, they will be fixing it.

Here are some simple tasks, categorised by age groups and rooms that you can give to your children. But keep in mind that; of course, this can be adjusted any way you want because every child matures differently.

And another very important thing to remember is to give them one task to do at a time, especially the younger ones. Give them one chore to do, wait for it to be finished, and then give the next one. The younger the child, the more supervision of course, so never leave them alone and always go and check their work.

But also keep in mind that you should not be fixing their work in front of them.

And the most important thing is to make it like a fun exercise and enjoy the time spend with your child.

photo credithttp://www.saluteokay.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/ALLERGIE.LAV1_.jpg

Here are a few chores you could give them to do by age:

2-4

• Tell them to clean in their room, give them different coloured bins and tell them to sort scattered toys in the bins by colour
• Put dirty clothes in the laundry hamper
• Put other things like books, glasses, clothes back in their places

4-5

• Make their bed
• Water easy to reach house plants (with supervision of course)
• Feed and give water to pets, if you have any
• Wipe the table
• Sort clean silverware
• Help set the table

6-7

• Dust the furniture
• Use hand-held vacuum
• Sweep the floor
• Empty dishwasher
• Put away clean dishes
• Fold their washed clothes

8-9

• Rake leaves
• Load dishwasher
• Clean after a meal
• Vacuum
• Collect and fold clean laundry
• Collect and take out trash

10-11

• Mow the lawn
• Prepare easy snacks
• Saw
• Clean counter tops
• Rearrange pantry

12 and up

• Wash windows
• Mop floors
• Paint walls
• Shop for groceries with a list
• Iron clothes
• Even watch younger kids

Of course you know what your child can and cannot do, so you can adjust this in a way that is better for your child. This is just for orientation, but mama knows best. 

Pick a cleaning song and sing and dance while you clean. Make a competition between your children, like who can organize and clean their room faster.

The goal of having your kids helping you to clean the house is with the idea that they learn how things should be done by helping you at first. When they get older they can do them by themselves. Plus you will be spending some time together and doing something useful while having fun with them.

The article is written by Edna Thomson. She runs a small company called Notting Hill TenancyCleaners

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This post comes from Anna Aamone, who runs a small cleaning company in London. She loves writing about cleaning and decorating. I hope you find this article as helpful as I did.

How to Spend Less Time Cleaning and Still Have a Sparkling House

Everybody dreams about having a spotless home, but they rarely feel the urge to spend hours cleaning. Considering there are thousands of better things to do than brushing the toilet and removing limescale build-up from faucets, it is understandable why so many people want to spend so little time housekeeping. The good news is, your home could still be sparkling even if you dedicate a very small amount of time to keeping it so darn neat. Here are a few tips to make house-cleaning more time-effective.

Focus on key areas

There are some telltale signs of why your home doesn’t look clean. The first one is your television. It needs dusting on the daily. No matter how much time you dedicate to cleaning, if dust still hangs on your DVD stacks and your television, it’s like you didn’t accomplish anything. It may sound a little “wait, what?”, but it’s not really important to have a clean home but rather a home that looks clean. So it’s wise to focus on those areas that show dirt and stains.

Some other key spots to focus on are your book shelves (dust), knick-knacks (dust), toothbrush holder (lots of residue), bathroom floor (soap scum, limescale, stains), kitchen countertops (food stains, crumbs), sinks (soap scum, limescale), space under tables (crumbs, stains), entryway (mud stains, dirt, soil), stove top (grease, burned food).

Wash the dishes right away

Do wash the dishes after your family is done with their meal. Dirty dishes look nothing but disgusting, making your home look like a sty. Because what kind of a housewife doesn’t have time to wash the dishes?

Get rid of pet hair on the daily

Pet hair can be difficult to remove, especially if you haven’t bothered to deal with it for a whole month. The easy way to cut down on hair and spend less time getting rid of it is to clean it on the daily. Put on rubber gloves and wet them. Run your hands over furniture or your pet’s favorite spot to hang around. Hair will get caught on the gloves and off your domestic surfaces.

Do one chore at a time

Because you want to do as many things as possible in the shortest time possible, you often fall into the trap of doing many chores at a time. But this is not okay. Staying focused on one task will make you more effective. So keep it simple.

Do small tasks every day

Cut down on clutter by doing small tasks every day. At first it may seem like you have to clean and tidy all the time, but soon you will find out that your domestic chores have been reduced to a manageable level. Because you will tackle small jobs on the daily, you won’t ever have to take a whole Saturday and spend it cleaning the house. Sweeping the floor takes about five minutes, washing the dishes is ten minutes, dusting is ten to fifteen minutes. Combine this rule with the next one to get better results.

Focus on a different chore every day

Monday could be vacuuming, Tuesday is organizing the shelves, Wednesday is for dusting, Thursday is doing the laundry, etc. etc. Even better, make a list of all the chores that have to be done throughout the week and distribute them evenly. You will find this to be a very good rule. Waking up knowing there is only one chore to do today makes it seem less burdensome and tiring.

This is the best way to spend less time cleaning and still have that spotless home you are willing to have. SW7 TenancyCleaning wishes you good luck!

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Did the first week of school hit any of you as hard as it did us? Phew!

I do want to say thank you for your prayers. By Friday morning, I felt like I was myself again. That battle is finished, and I can’t tell you how much your prayers and letters of encouragement meant to me.

Now it’s on to the next thing, right?

My mom has arrived, and she is downstairs taking care of JD and Daniel for me. When I left to come up here, Daniel was begging Nana for “suyup toast.” That’s french toast, for those of you who do not speak Daniel.

With three boys going into fall ball this year, what better time for a Giveaway of cleaning products?

We do love to get dirty.

But actually, they are all playing soccer this fall instead of baseball. Either way, I will be doing TONS of laundry.

Ha! It’s funny what things excite me at my age. Offers for baby products? Eh… Offers for breastfeeding products?  Well….

Offers for stain remover, HOLD THE PHONE!!  Did someone just offer me cleaning products!? YES! Send them right away. I will be happy to write you a review!

Supplies ready!

First, I tried it out on chocolate:

Chocolate Before

As you can see, it worked extremely well on chocolate, 100%:

Chocolate stains after the Espro

I also had great success using it as a carpet cleaner. The carpet in my dining room is my #1 nemesis. Who puts carpet in a dining room??? It’s not like we have an eat-in kitchen, either. This is where we eat.

Such is the life of a renter…

After, at a glance

My carpet has a blotchy color anyway, so it was hard to get a good photo. I was able to get up 98% of the stains with the Espro.  I just sprayed, scrubbed, and vacuumed.

You can easily tell, in this photo, where I used the cleaner and where I didn’t.

With the dirt yard that my boys are constantly tracking through, my carpet takes an insane beating. I make them take their shoes off in the house, but it still gets extremely dirty.

I was very pleased with Espro’s ability to clean the bad spots out of the carpet. I regret that I didn’t get a “before” picture…Well, I mean, sort of. That would actually be kind of embarrassing…

I was also impressed with Espro as a stain remover. It got 90% of the dirt that ‘Dirt Boy’ embedded into his t-shirt, and it was especially effective at little unidentified spots on the boys’ clothing.

Now here are the quick facts you may want to know about stain removal. I have found these tips to be highly beneficial over the years. 

Cold Water is best for:

blood,

dairy products, and

body fluids

HOT Water is best for:

mega dirty anything (except blood),

cloth diapers,

grease or oil stains

And a few fast facts for the ESPRO Sports Cleaner:

• Environmentally friendly: no bleach, butyl, phosphates, chlorinated, petroleum. or other ozone depleting solvents
• Can also be used as just an odor eliminator
• Safe for use on all fabrics, even silk
• Safe to use around pets and children
• Will not harm colors
• Used by over 100 Collegiate sports teams

Also, this company is based in Alabama and Georgia, and the products are  manufactured right here in the USA. 

I hope you will find the Espro Sports cleaner as helpful as I have! You can buy it at many Walmarts. However, just in case yours doesn’t carry it, here’s a link to where you can order online:   esproclean.com/shop/

Now it’s time for the Giveaway!!! Here’s what you could win:

The Deluxe Package: 

The Deluxe Package is an upgrade of the $10 TV Special. The Deluxe Package includes: One 64oz Refill Bottle, One 32oz Spray Bottle, One Stain Wipes Pack (12), Two Microfiber Towels. A $35 value.

The Giveaway winner will receive all of this, but the 2nd bottle of Espro will be MUCH bigger.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you’d like to enter, but you have trouble, send me an email, and I will enter you manually. Thanks!!!

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How cute is my most willing little helper!?

I think the concrete and the storage building got the most water, but the experience that he had from it was right on target.  : )   That was the most productive hour of our day.  Now it’s time for us to go to Joshua’s baseball game, followed by me taking the boys to a birthday party, while Alan studies for the Sunday school lesson he has to teach tomorrow.

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