Tuesday's Tool - Homeskills

I am not by nature a very organized person. If it wasn't for close friends who have equipped me with certain tools to help me declutter and become organized, I would most likely be a messy hoarder! I am not joking when I say this! (Thank you friends, you know who you are!) And so one of the challenges of having four kids is, you guessed it, organization.

When my mentor helped me get started on the path of homeschooling 4 years ago, one of the things she challenged me to do was to start Sarah off learning a homeskill a week. This varied anywhere from learning how to change the toilet paper roll, to sweeping, to cleaning mirrors, to cooking. Anything that needed to be learned and done in our home was deemed a 'homeskill.' At the time we had two kids. And so my 'not very organized' brain wasn't very intimidated by the homeskill task.

Fast forward four years.

Now we have three children more than capable of learning homeskills and one who is well on his way to that status! But with my more-than-lacking organizational skills, I have had a great deal of trouble coming up with a consistent plan as to how I can train my kids each week - and remember which homeskill I am teaching them. Now for all you organizers out there, I'm sure you've already come up with solutions for me! You're thinking "This is really simple Jamie, I can help you..." (And I appreciate that!) But recently God gave me the answer.... and I want to share it with you. It's really simple actually.

I read recently a few weeks ago in another blog, about a mother who had many children (like 8 or 9). Every week, she assigned a room to each child. The child was required to do everything that was needed to keep that room clean. When a new week started, the children rotated rooms so that everyone had the chance to learn and practice new homeskills.

What's great about this option is that all I have to remember is which child has which room. If a child has the kitchen they help me with dishes, cooking, sweeping, counter. If the den, vacuuming, dusting, toy pick-up. And so on. This has made a world of  difference for us. I am able to train and teach them as they work alongside me. No chore charts to update. Very little reminding. No memorizing who has what homeskill(s). It's a great way to organize. Plus it gives me the option to train on multiple skills or just one, depending on the age and capability of each child!

So that's my tool for the week! God's blessings on your family!

Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men..."