Chore Lists or Not?

I was asked the other day if we have a chore list for Selena. While I can see where many children benefit from having a chore list, here in our home we do not use one. Selena knows that her toys and her bedroom is her responsibility to pick up and clean. As for other chores we are very fortunate that Selena thinks helping us is fun and jumps at the opportunity to help us with what ever we might be doing. My general feeling is that as long as she is willing to step up and help with little encouraging, then I do not want to limit her to thinking so long as she does what is on a chore list, her duties to our family are done.

Selena had no problem in getting down and dusting the legs and bottom of the table and chairs for me. I guess I should say until this happened:

There is hardly a time that Papa or I are doing something around the house that Selena isn’t asking to help. She will spend hours helping us weed the gardens outside. I can hardly open the dishwasher without her right there to help unload or load it. Sometimes it seems like she is tied to my waist as I scurry to clean the house and she is running around helping me with all that she has.

It is for this reason we do not have a chore list. So long as she is this willing to do what is asked of her, and does so with such joy, I see no reason to give her a false idea that all she is expected to do is what is on the chore list.

This is not to say that as she grows and we begin to see her less willing to help that we will not incorporate a chore list, but for right now, she is such a huge help to all of us, why spoil that.

“h” Helping Hands

I am sure many of you can relate to this. Selena has always loved to help pick up her toys, but suddenly the last couple of weeks, she just runs in the other direction and absolutely refused to pick up anything that seemed like work to her.

Since we were starting the letter “h” this week, I decided to do a theme on helping hands. I made up a song, don’t ask me what tune I sing it to, as I kind of make that up too. Anyway it goes like this:

“Helping hands, Helping hands, we all have Helping hands! Helping Hands have five little fingers on each one to pick things up! Helping hands, can help grandma pick up toys, pick up books, clean the table, make our bed. Let’s clap our Helping Hands! Clap, Clap, Clap! Let’s wiggle our little fingers on our Happy hands! Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle!”

When time came I wanted her to pick up her toys, I called out, “Grandma needs her Helping hands to pick up the books. Now Grandma needs her Helping hands to put them on the table. Grandma needs her Helping hands to pick up the toys (being specific such as doll house etc..) Grandma needs her Helping hands to put them away! Before long Selena had all her toys picked up, was laughing and having fun with our new found game. We would then go in and do a couple high fives and I would give her a couple of chocolate chips, then we would shake out our Helping hands.

Game over! Everyone was Happy! So Helping hands gave me a wink!