Our Great Joy: My Little Helpers

Some of the best parenting advice I ever received came from a book on training children. The advice was to never work alone. Meaning in all our household chores and yard work to get the kids involved and at a very early age. Most kids hate to do “chores” but if allowed to help you with what your doing really actually enjoy working. When kids are little it does mean it takes you twice as long (sometimes more) as it would to do that same chore yourself, but the benefits you both receive from working together far out way the extra time spent. Plus the extra time is spent with your kids, having fun and teaching them how to do new things and letting them know that they are a valuable part of the family. My 2 year old is a little bit afraid of my vacuum. Not something I experienced with our other 5 children because most of our houses had lots of carpet so vacuuming was for the most part something that happened everyday. In this house only the bedrooms are carpet so the vacuuming happens much less frequently. So to help him get over his fear he helps me vacuum. He has a great time doing it too. Cooking is probably my kids favorite time to help. Here are some pictures of them helping me get chili in the crockpot so we can have it for tonight's dinner. They had a lot of fun and that totally out ways the extra mess there is from little ones helping!