Learning the Value of Work

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

—Ecclesiastes 2:24-25

Meet the newest addition to our family…  I’m kicking myself for not having made our Picture-Job Chart (tutorial here) when it first went on my ‘want to make’ list a couple of years ago.  My sister and I found my mom’s directions and aged copies from our childhood and cleaned everything up to replicate the job board in our homes…

There is so much value and satisfaction in work.   It is such a privilege to be able to train our children to find enjoyment and fulfillment in contributing to the workload that keeps our family going.

Of course, at this stage, it is more work to train them in helping out than if I would just do the job myself.  I’ve been guilty more times than I care to count of just doing many things myself because it is faster…

With the upcoming arrival of a new baby I’m realizing that it is well worth the investment of time to help train the kids to become more self-sufficient and active contributors in our home without me needing to remind them every step of the way.  And not only is it more helpful for me, but it is helpful for them to have a proud sense of belonging and contributing something of high value to the family.

That’s where this nifty job chart comes in handy.  We’ve used ‘job sticks’ before. My oldest loved moving the sticks around as he completed chores, but it required me to read the assignments to him…  Because this one is completely picture based, even the non-readers in the family can see what they need to do and experience the satisfaction of moving things off their ‘to do’ list.

I’m a huge lover of to do lists.  This job chart may have had something to do with the start of this love affair.  Each morning I jot down what I need to get done that day and derive great satisfaction from marking things off.  I’m excited to pass that on to my children.

It was fun to watch them pore over each card.  There was excitement at the prospect of getting to help out in so many ‘fun’ ways!

Obviously, there are a few chores on there that they aren’t ready for…  Using a hot iron is one of those.

Each morning it is their responsibility to check out the chore chart and start working on what needs to be done for the day.   We are setting aside time before and after breakfast to work on these.  Some are simple and take place daily such as getting dressed, brushing one’s teeth, making their beds, etc and others will be assigned on an ‘as-needed’ basis like emptying the dishwasher, sorting laundry, putting away clean laundry, etc…

Now I have to be perfectly honest and let you know that while my oldest is just thrilled with the job board and derives great satisfaction in pleasing us as well as getting his ‘to-do’ list done, it will take more time with my second born.  He does not have a people pleasing bone in his body (which is both good and bad) and we will need to work on helping him become internally motivated and find personal satisfaction in a job consistently well done.

It has been incredibly helpful with my youngest as I’ve come to realize that we haven’t expected him to do much at all.  With these new pictures, he has the desire to try.  Now I just need to take the time to train him to do things correctly!

A tutorial for this great tool can be found here: Go to the Tutorial!