Working Hard = Hard Work

Be warned!

 

 I am proudly stepping onto my soapbox in three, two, one...

 

Mark and I believe in having our kids work hard. They have inside chores and they have outside chores. If they do not complete these chores, they do not earn any money because Mark and I strongly feel that people shouldn't get something for doing nothing.

 

The boys are expected to set the table and clean it off each day for dinner, take care of their room by making their beds every morning, keeping the floor cleaned up and their toys/closet organized. They are also expected to make their own lunches for school and to do their own laundry. That means I get to teach them about making healthy choices because their lunches do have requirements (at least half a sandwich, chips or crackers, a fruit or vegetable, and a healthy choice such as a granola bar or gogurt). All their laundry must be pulled right side out (especially the socks!) before it is washed and then they are responsible for folding and putting things away after they have dried them. Last but not least, our boys are expected to clean their own bathroom. They are to sweep the floor, clean the mirror, wipe down the counter and sink, empty the garbage and clean the toilet.

 

Sounds like a lot doesn't it?

And these are the chores that they get paid for. They are expected to do a whole lot more just because they are part of this family!

 

We feel that by having the boys work hard now, they will work hard always because work ethic is something you can teach your children. They will learn that if you want something done, you need to be willing to do it. They will learn that working hard is rewarding and that while yes, it can be hard, it can also be fun.

 

They will learn by doing their own laundry just how much effort it takes and how to actually put only dirty clothes into the laundry basket as opposed to every single item of clothing they own.

 

By cleaning their own toilet they will learn not to pee all over the seat, floor and wall because it is gross to clean it up (even when it is your own pee!).

 

By doing these "chores", they will most importantly learn an appreciation for when people help you or do something for you. My boys appreciate the time and energy that I put into cooking dinner and cleaning the house because they now know how much work it takes. They recognize hard work when they see it.

 

They make me proud.

 

They don't whine about doing chores or being asked to do something.

They don't pout or complain or say "It's not fair!"

If they don't do a chore, they don't get paid.

 

They are not perfect. They do often forget to manage their time to make sure their chores get done (so then we have a lesson about working first and then playing).

They have done terrible jobs with some of their chores and tried to get away with it (and then learned that having to redo something takes twice as long as just doing it right the first time, plus the additional insult of not getting paid for it if you have to redo it).

 

But despite those things they still make me proud.

 

Ok, stepping off my soapbox now!

 

 

During spring break while Mark and I worked in the orchard, the boys began a project of their own. Mark had tilled up both sides of our driveway and while doing so we found tons and tons of rocks. We eventually plan on planting some trees and bushes along the driveway along with putting in a split-rail fence but until then we mainly spray the weeds and try to keep things under control. The boys were given the task of gathering up the rocks so they could use them to line the bottom of the orchard fence.

 

The driveway is fairly long and the boys were given no timeline to get this done, they just had to work at it. Here is the side they started on.

 

 

Here is the side they had not done yet.

 

It was a lot of bending and lifting and walking back and forth to the four-wheeler.

 

 

They worked hard doing a task that would have freaked out a lot of the children in my classroom.

 

Later that night when we went to my Uncle David's house I found the boys outside doing this.

 

What are they doing? What are they looking at?





 Only at some of the cutest things ever!

 

Piglets are way too cute to taste so good later on.

 

The boys were filling in the hole the piggies were digging and then they would wait for the piggie's little noses to reappear. They did this while grunting and "talking" to the pigs the whole time.

Because these little guys (or girls, I'm not positive) were so stinking cute (and because we need to make some money off our property in order to stay in farm deferral) we are going to go ahead and bring some home with us to live!

 

Mark is tying in the pig pen into part of our orchard fence. I don't know if this is where the pigs will always live but it will be their home for this year anyway.

 

We had used the post hole digger thing when we had it in order to dig these holes also. Then we had to dig a trench at least 14 inches down in order to bury our fencing around the pig pen. 

The boys came out to investigate and then went and got their shovels in order to help out. They are excited about the idea of pigs! 

 

 

Before too long, the boys and I had to abandon Mark so that we could go to swim lessons.

 

 

When I got home from work today this is what I saw:

A good-looking start of our pig pen!

 

Now he is using some of our pallets (that we got for free!) in order to build them a shelter from the sun. 

I love all these projects that we have going on around here!