As I go through our days there are a few things that I haven’t mentioned
1. When does my house get cleaned?
2. What is Joshua and Jessica doing?
Well, the housework happens so automatically I find it hard to realise it is happening. I have the house divided into 4 main zones and each of my children looks after the daily/weekly maintenance of that zone doing a little bit every day. They rotate from zone to zone every week. This week:
- Joshua is on laundry which means he is completely responsible for washing the family’s laundry.
- Jessica is on bathroom which means she needs to keep the bathroom and family room cleaned daily and tidy.
- Naomi is in the kitchen which means during the day she keeps the dishes at bay but in the evening she helps me cook dinner (or cooks it herself if and when she is able).
- Daniel is on outside which means he does the rubbish, scraps, chickens, potplants and cleans/tidies the verandas.
We have three chore spots throughout the day – after breakfast, after lunch and before dinner. Doing the dishes after dinner is a bit more on a who is available, and directed by me.
I am responsible for looking after the food, training the cook’s helper, keeping the floor tidy, but the things that take up most of my ‘chore’ time is supervision – though my kids are mostly trained in these areas it still needs me to check up on them and to ensure that things are not getting sloppy. But making sure I notice things also helps me see that one of them maybe ready to be extended.
The other thing I didn’t mention the last few days is what Josh and Jess are doing for their studies.
Josh is fully independent though he joins us most times for our family devotions. He pops out of his office/study area every so often to talk about something that he is reading about – at the moment it is all about ‘self’ but from a very postmodernists perspective which means it is all relative and not based on God’s truth at all. I am so pleased that we have had him well read and grounded in apologetics, world view and Christian thinking.
Jess is mostly independent also. She is working on a simple schedule of 1 hour for Bible study, 1 hour for science, 1 hour for history, 1 hour for math, 1 hour for reading books (reading list) plus piano. She also joins us for family devotions. She comes to me whenever she can’t understand something or wants to dig deeper into the things she is learning. When she has finished some written work she leaves them (as do all the children) in a folder on the dining table for me to look at – which reminds me I think there are a few for me to look at this evening.
