Character Building with Chores and Jobs in the Homeschool

Welcome to Day 4 of my 10 Days of Teaching Values in your homeschool series! Today we’ll talk about character building with chores and jobs in homeschooling.

Character building with chores and jobs is a great opportunity in homeschooling.

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Building character with chores and jobs is really very easy in homeschooling. We are blessed with the precious gift of time for so many wonderful things and teaching diligence through working is one of them.

Homeschool Chores

From the time my children can toddle, they get the pleasure of helping with chores around the house and around the farm. With every new responsibility comes wonderful new values. (Not to mention preparation for their futures!) Just some of the values I’ve seen molded in my children through chores include:

Ambition – taking the to-do’s seriously and doing them well
Commitment – knowing that chores must be done before other things
Diligence – sticking with chores even when they become frustrating
Confidence – knowing that “mom trusted me with this responsibility”
Cooperation – we often work together to accomplish various tasks
Joy – Yes, really! Not always, mind you, but there is deep joy and satisfaction in knowing a task has been completed. I bet you’ve felt joy when looking around your house after it’s had a deep cleaning, right? Same with kids!

There are OH SO MANY MORE values that could be included in this list – helpfulness, leadership, punctuality, obedience, strength, organization…

Whenever I write a post about chores, people always ask what chores my children are expected to do on a regular basis and at what age. That’s a hard question to answer because each one of my children has been ready to do different chores at different ages. So, instead of giving age-appropriate lists, I thought I’d make a chart of current chores my children are capable of.

Please note that only a few chores are ever scheduled at one time AND oftentimes the chores are supervised or the kids are the “helpers” rather than completely responsible.

Our current chore schedule looks something like this:

Every single day before breakfast ALL the kids must: make beds, brush teeth, get dressed, bring laundry to the laundry room, and straighten their rooms.

Monday-Friday everyone has an additional chore to work on at some point throughout the day. This might include straightening a closet, vacuuming under couch cushions, or weeding a flower bed. This chore rarely takes more than 15 minutes to complete.

Saturday morning is our deep cleaning time. We divvy up various chores to make sure the entire house is straightened and cleaned. If we’ve kept up with the basic chores the rest of the week, this deep cleaning usually takes less than 2 hours.

Jobs in Homeschooling

Although we haven’t officially sent our children out into the work force, the older two have taken on various jobs for money. This summer, they mowed the neighbor’s yard once every two weeks. It was a very large yard and they used a push mower – they earned every single penny of their fee!

They have also worked in the hay fields and cattle barns with their dad during the summer, and have been hired out for odd jobs by grandparents. With every new “job”, I watch their character grow just a little more!

I also encourage my children when they come to me with a business idea. Besides being character builders, their businesses have been wonderful homeschooling activities. They have generated business concepts, created business cards, marketed themselves and earned money! With each new business, lessons are learned and the productivity gets a little better.