Should Kids Help Pay?

Diana left this comment in the comment section of The Two Most Important Things in Education:

As our kids are getting into the higher teens and they are getting income from various places we have struggled with what to require of them (for example a friend our ours has her children contribute half of any income they earn to the family..but she is a single mom now with 8 kids and they need to do that..they are very hard workers and really take care of each other). We want a family economy but just aren’t sure what to require. We don’t want to encourage mooching as they head into adulthood but feel a bit guilty about having them contribute cash.

From a Homeschool Victim Who Obviously Survived

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to discredit real abuse. Real abuse happens within all walks of life. It does need to be addressed and dealt with - with punishment for the offender and healing for the very real victim. But this post is a satire about a life that often seems hard and unfair. What child does not think life is unfair at times?

Six years have passed since I graduated from what I have been trained to call formal education. I was taught that education was about more than the books and grades, so we called our curriculum, our scheduled learning, “formal education”. It is all documented in those records we kept, just in case anyone accused us of not doing real school.

Are We Deceiving the Children?

Where did we get this concept that summers are a time of living carefree? You know, those lazy, hazy days of summer?

These long days of summer are to be enjoyed, but this mentality of 3 months of doing nothing but fun in the sun is wrong.

Summers should actually be our busiest time. This is the time to sow, weed, water and harvest.

Back in the agricultural days kids took a break from “school” to be able to help work the family fields and farms. They understood the work that it took to keep everyone alive.

The Results of Poor Management

Whether it be in business, finances, churches or even the home, if there is poor management it is obvious.

A poorly managed business will lack quality and customer service all while the bottom-line of profits disappear. A poorly run business will eventually go bankrupt.

Good management will reflect in the attitude of the employees, product and profit. It is a business that will grow, meet needs and evolve with changing times.

Why They Get On My Nerves -Part 2: Child Training

After posting yesterday about why my kids, my husband and the housework get on my nerves, I felt like there needed to be a follow up post about another aspect of this.

This part is mainly about the children, those sweet precious gifts from God, that were also born with a sin nature, just like we were.

These kiddos (just like me) need to be taught and trained, taught what is right and wrong, and then trained to do the right thing, regardless of what they want to do.

Why They (kids/husband/housework) Get On My Nerves

I’m not sure what it is right now, but the kids are hungry all the time, maybe it’s because it is summer and they are running around more, swimming more or maybe they are all just growing! Sometimes I think they are just bored.

We don’t buy a lot of junk food around here and most of our cooking is from scratch…so that takes time.

This morning I was making waffles for the kids using wholewheat that I ground myself and with blueberries that were just picked by my husband. My hopes were that these waffles would keep them ‘full’ for a while, and I made some extras for them to snack on this afternoon. Making waffles takes time.

Training and Consistency are as Important as Food and Shelter

A friend of mine made the comment how her daughter did a through job when doing a certain household chore. This same daughter, who was ‘usually in her own little world’, is now taking her responsibilities more seriously.

This precious jewel is FIVE years old! Yes, even at five a child can do a good job cleaning the toilet… and many other things. But most children will never do this unless there are patient and loving parents to show them how, over and over again and you must work along side them if you want them to do a good job!