Chore and Household skills by Age.

I cannot believe this list is still on the Internet. I printed it off of HomeschoolTools.org site 7 or 8 years ago and have found it and lost it several times. What I like about it is that I can use it as a guideline for what to work on next once my child reaches a certain age. By the time my child is 13 and on his way to being an adult these are SOME of the skills I would like him to mastered and can do without complaining or procrastination. (note the emphasis on character instead of just getting it done.) It must be done skillfully AND cheerfully.

Each list builds on the list before it, and does not usually repeat chores already listed. Thus, in planning chores for a ten-year old, you might use ideas from the 5-7 age group as well as the 8-12 age group. Allow for variation in families and the abilities of individual children. This list is only meant to provide ideas and does not imply that children should perform all the chores on the lists.

Age: 2-4
Wash your hands, Brush your teeth, Put away your pajamas Make your bed, Pick up your toys, Dress yourself, Clear your place at the table, Wipe up a spill, Help dust the furniture,
Set the table, Put away silverware from Put dirty laundry in the hamper, Feed a pet dish washer or drying rack


Age: 5-7
Leave the bathroom neat, Take the dirty clothes to LR, Fold laundry with supervision
Put away clean clothes, Help rake the yard, Pull weeds, Water flowers, Sweep patio or side walk Help to clean inside of car, Help to wash the car, Shake out rugs, Straighten your drawers and closet, Sweep kitchen floor, Mop floors, Wipe counter in kitchen
Help prepare meals (e.g. peel vegetables, tear lettuce) Put dishes away, Wipe chairs and table legs, Empty trash cans, Clean marks on walls and doors, Shine windows with help, Shine mirrors with help Scrub bathroom sinks, Wipe counters in bathroom, Clear the table, Help to wash and dry dishes, Load & turn on dishwasher with help, Operate washer & dryer with help, Help to put away groceries, Get the mail, Tie shoes, Bring in firewood, Make your own lunch, Feed pets and groom them, Care for younger siblings while parents are at home, Clean pet cages, Straighten up a room, Put away dishes.

Age: 8-12
Put away groceries, Make simple recipes, Serve breakfast or lunch to younger children, Clean kitchen after a meal, Scrub kitchen floor, Change the bed sheets, Sort clothes and load washer Load and operate dryer (including cleaning lint trap on dryer) Hang clothes on the line, Fold and put away clean laundry, Vacuum floors, Vacuum carpeted stairs, Vacuum couches and chairs Dust furniture and window sills,Clean walls, Clean front of kitchen cabinets, CleanTV and computer, Knows proper use and precautions for cleaning supplies, Clean bathroom completely Wash the car, Help to polish car, Help to clean interior of car, Water indoor plants, Water the yard, Rake the yard, Weed the garden, Clean pet cages and fish bowls, Walk a pet, Train a pet Answer phone and make a call, Write thank you notes, Repair torn books, Help bathe younger children, Dress younger children, Polish shoes, Pack own clothes for a trip, Trim your own nails, Pack a picnic, Decorate for a party, Polish silverware, Sew buttons

Age 13-adult
Replace light bulbs safely, Change vacuum bags and belt, Wash windows inside and out, Clean fireplace, Polish wood furniture and cabinets, Babysit, Clean out refrigerator and identify spoiled food,Clean the stove and oven, Plan a balanced meal, Make a grocery list, Know how to treat stains, Shop for groceries, Cook Balanced meals, Hand-wash delicate clothes, Iron clothes, Basic mending, Mow the lawn Trim bushes, Polish car, Put gas in the car, Oil a bicycle, Oil squeaky hinges, etc. Putty dents in walls, Help paint interior walls, Use caulk, Scrape paint,
Help paint exterior of house, Strip and wax floors, Clean bathroom grout.

Wacky Wednesday - You will not believe this!

This Wacky Wednesday post is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. It still blows me away after seeing this video for 5 - 6 times. I think we have completely unestimated these amazing and beloved animals.

Two recipes- One for Chaos and One for Achievment

The Recipes for Chaos and Achievement
I read this article and a response from Former Elijah company's owner and mom to three homeschooled kids, Ellen Davis in a newsletter I subscribe to and wanted to share it with you. The article is by Dr. Phillip E. Humbert (Copyright (c) 2006, all rights reserved. Contact him at: www.philiphumbert.com or email: Coach@philiphumbert.com.him

We all want lives of achievement, health, happiness and some measure ofwealth. And yet, the vast majority end up leading relatively average, middle-class lives. How can this be? How can so many of the world's most educated people end up working paycheck to paycheck?

I think the answers are pretty simple.

Most of us were never taught HOW to create and live a great life! We don't
study this in school. We admire people who have done great things, but no one
coaches us, no one shows us the way. And so we stumble. We struggle. We ARE
educated, ambitious, educated people and we do the best we can, but without the
basic recipe, too often we get only average results.

So, I want to share with you two of the most important "recipes" I know. I teach these formulas to my coaching clients and I want to share them with you. My price? Only this: If you find them helpful, I ask that you pass them on to at least two other people. Forward this email, or print it out and mail it to two friends. I hope you're willing to do that.

Ok, here we go.

The Recipe for Chaos
The first recipe is what I call the recipe for chaos.
It goes like this:

Impulse + Opportunity = Chaos

Every day, we all have impulses to study or to spend, to do our work or to
watch television. Impulses are merely ideas that pop into our brains and
momentarily catch our attention. The problem is that they are relatively random
and too many are based on casual appetites or unhealthy temptations. There's
nothing inherently bad or wrong with our impulses, but there is nothing
inherently good or trustworthy about them, either.

And, too often our impulses get matched with opportunity for instant
gratification. Here's how it works.

Consider the impulse to spend, combined with a credit card in your wallet.
Too often, the result is casual debt, and that can be a problem. Or how about
the impulse to watch television (just one show), combined with a beautiful new
TV in the family room? Too often, the result is wasted time. You see the
pattern?

Impulses happen. When we surround ourselves with opportunities for instant
gratification, the result can be a life lurching out of control.

The Recipe for Achievement
Now, consider another recipe, the one for achievement.
Here it is:

Desire + Discipline = Achievement

"Desire" comes from Latin words that mean "of the father." Our deepest
desires represent our true longings, our mission or purpose or values in life.
When we are clear about our real DESIRES and combine them with a disciplined
life, the results can be astonishing!

Jonas Salk had the DESIRE to prevent polio and the DISCIPLINE to do the
research, study his notes and make the discoveries. The results changed the
world.

Mary Kay Ash (of Mary Kay Cosmetics) had the DESIRE to help single moms
like herself, and the DISCIPLINE to find a way. She had no money (she started
with $500) and no business experience, but she pressed forward. She changed an
industry and helped millions of women in the process.

Random impulses in a world of undisciplined opportunity can lead to chaos,
debt, and disaster. Knowing your deepest DESIRES and matching them with even
minimal DISCIPLINE, however, is the recipe for achievement. When Stephen Covey
talks about "starting with the end in mind," he's talking about being clear
about your desires. When we talk about written goals, we're talking about strong
desires. When you know what you truly want, and go after it with discipline and
determination, the results are astounding.

That's the recipe for achievement!

Below are my (Ellen Davis) thoughts about this article.

What Does This Have to Do With Home Schooling?

Well, if you're like me, there have been times your home schooling has been chaotic and there have been times you have actually felt a sense of achievement and accomplishment. The same two recipes apply. When I look back on the times of chaos in my home schooling (or in my life, for that matter), they pretty much followed Dr. Humbert's recipe:

Impulse + Opportunity = Chaos.

Except I would add another ingredient to his recipe. Mine would go like
this:Impulse + Justification + Opportunity = Chaos-First there was the impulse.
It usually happened at a bookfair or at a support group meeting. It went like
this...."Oh my gosh! Janey's been using this really neat program that teaches
her kids how to be math whizzes in three weeks! I want to try that with my
kids!"After the impulse usually came the justification. My mind would come up
with all sorts of rationalizations as to why I needed to spend the grocery money
on this new program. "This will give my kids a brighter future. This will allow
them to do better on their ACTs. And besides, I can always sell it to another
home schooler when I'm done with it."

Next came the opportunity. I just log onto a website, pull out my credit
card, and, before I know it, I've bought the $300 math program, rearranged my
whole school schedule, and voila! all of the ingredients have been added to the
mix to create a big batch of chaos. Then comes the chaos.

Six weeks later the expensive math program is sitting on the bookcase shelf
in the garage and I'm trying to restore order to an out of control schedule and
frantically catching everyone up on what we missed in our regular math program
by taking our detour into becoming math whizzes.This isn't to say that we
shouldn't divert from our plans.

When things are obviously not working, it's time to reconsider our options
and regroup. This is called experience not impulse.Or, on a beautiful spring
day, we may want to put the regular school materials aside and take a nature
walk to just enjoy the changing season. This is called spontaneity, not impulse.
The difference between experience or spontaneity and impulse is that experience
and spontaneity occur within a structure of desire and discipline. Dr. Humbert
calls it "disciplined opportunity."Somehow, we've gotten the idea that
"discipline" is a dirty word. It's usually associated with punishment of some
sort.

Chaos is, by its very definition, a state of extreme confusion, disorder,
and unpredictability. Discipline refers to order, predictability, and
clarity.Discipline is simply the act of creating a context of in which order,
predictability, and clarity is more prevalent than confusion, disorder, and
unpredictability. True creativity and accomplishment can only occur in such a
context.

I have a friend who grow up in a very abusive, chaotic home and she has
tended to continually recreate her childhood once she became an adult. She's in
counseling right now, and this week the counselor zeroed in on chaos. The
essence of her advice to my friend was to try and become aware of the process
that goes on when she creates chaos--the feelings, the actions, the thoughts.

In other words, she should start trying to be mindful of how she creates
chaos. Now that we know the recipe, we can also become more mindful of why we
create chaos in our lives. And we can choose achievement instead.

The Dirty Dozen!

Have you noticed?
Everything eatable seems to be going up. The pressure it puts on a grocery budget seems crushing at times. In my goal of reducing expenditures in the grocery cart this quarter, I am focusing deeper and harder on ways to economize and get more value for the same dollar. On the other hand I do not want to sacrifice quality foods- real foods or exchange them for fake white flour, artificial flavors or heated oil versions that may seem like a better deal but will only turn those savings now in medical bills later, not to mention pain and suffering-something I am radically opposed to (the pain and suffering part)

So in a short series of posts I will be sharing what I am doing now and have done in the past to eat (well) without paying (in pain) later.

I'd like to start with what may seem like a contradiction..... buy organic!

Hold on.

There is a balance between paying now and paying later. There are some things that I will not compromise on. One of them is oil. I will not buy grocery store oils. They have been heated (increasing the chances of turning rancid quickly) clarified, bleached and filtered and stabilized to look pretty on grocery store shelves. But using a good natural oil, organic if possible, but certainly cold pressed is absolutely number one on my list.

The next items on my organic list is shown in the Top Dirty Dozen below. If you can, go organic, if not do not fret, but do the best you can. My improvements are in brackets.

beef - and all meat, I presume
milk - raw is best
coffee - limited consumption
peaches - peeling maybe acceptable but is probably not be enough due to the soft nature of the fruit. I'd pass them by if they were not organic. I've seen them spray.
apples - wash well or even peel if not organic
peppers - red is healthiest
celery - Difficult to find organic celery and is often small and tougher when you do
strawberry-I had a naturopath tell me never eat a non organic strawberry
lettuce - grow your own perhaps?
grapes - includes raisins
potatoes
tomatoes - including canned

If you can purchase these items organic you will be better odd in the long run. Next best is at a farmers market where the produce is generally fresher than in grocery stores. And if you can buy directly from the farmer himself you will be even better off because the chances are better that he has a small farm will use more sustainable practices even though he may not be certified organic.

Then to relieve some of the budget pressure if you had to pay a little more for good quality here are the top ten that are not as necessary to purchase organic.

asparagus, avocado, banana, broccoli, cabbage, kiwi, mango, onion, papaya, pineapple (I have yet to see an organic pineapple anyway)

So on to saving money. Keeping in mind the number one organic food on the dirty dozen list I am just about ready to purchase a side of grass fed organically raised beef. I think I have found a really great deal at $2.50 per lb. You cannot even buy regular ground beef for 2.5o per pound here in Seattle anymore.

That brings me to one of my tips. Shop around. I had to research on line for about an hour or more to find this farm, email them, wait for a reply and then place an order but it has saved me perhaps 1.50 per lb. Most of the other places I found charge $3.50 - $4.00 per pound with cut and wrap on top.

So what I will be saving on my meat supply, I will be pouring into some organic produce this summer.

Tomorrow I will share some ideas that may or may not be profound to you but have helped to save over the long run on good clean healthy food.

My First Raw Restaurant!

Today I did another first in my life. My Husband and I ate at Chaco Canyon Cafe - an almost completely raw restaurant in downtown Seattle. Seattle is not the mecca of raw food eating establishments and in my search so far have only located one. More of a cafe bistro feel that a restaurant, it was still enjoyable and we got to try a few interesting dishes.

I really wanted to order about three entrees knowing I could probably eat them all anyway since you can eat much more raw food and not feel as full or stuffed. But I did restrain myself and ordered only a raw pizza and a side salad. Elvis ordered a Egyptian pea soup and sandwich. (He was too chicken to go all raw) The food was very good and to top it all off we shared two desserts. One was a raspberry Tart and the other carrot cake. The Raspberry Tart won hands down and I am determined to make it at home once I figure out all the ingredients and their priority.

I have also been viewing the DVD set that I purchased from Amazon, The Raw Gourmet 3-DVD Set They are live demonstrations of Noni Shannon "Cooking" several dishes that are in her book,The Raw Gourmet which is a thorough collection of all kinds of foods, company and everyday banquets. The DVDs were quite pricey but since we are book sellers anyway, I knew we could sell the set again once I had viewed them so I will list them in the next few days.

For someone who is making a huge jump from a regular SAD diet (Standard American Diet) her videos might be a real kick start if you were starting from scratch. Since I have been on this road for a long time I found them a little basic but still interesting. It is nice to see someone proficient at a new method quickly preparing beautiful dishes before your very eyes.

I am off to try raspberry tart, the recipe made up from scratch. I'm sure it will take several tries so when I get it perfected I'll post is as a new recipe. Have a great day tomorrow.

If you have a new favorite recipe that is either raw or almost raw give me a comment or two. I'd love to hear it.

A REAL high school education!

As I'm contemplating the end of what I view as my children's formal education at home I am thinking about all the principles and concepts I still need to teach them before I release them to the world.

They need discernment skills and wisdom in relationships. I want to caution them in aggressive and unscrupulous women. I need to equip them with skills to survive in this dog eat dog world. (not trying to be negative but there is competition out there) But most of all I want them to be well equipped with a worldview that is rock solid steady, immovable, absolute and deeply embedded.

As much as I believe in protecting our children from outside error and harmful influences I also believe it is vitally important to expose them while still in the home (in due time) to error and teach them how to discern that error correctly and to expose those lies by applying the grid of truth, the Bible.

Since there is nothing new under the sun, this will give them patterns to group error into age old heretical philosophies that started a long time ago. Teaching them to discern and apply the word of truth also gives them the opportunity to "study and show themselves approved unto God." They see first hand that the Word of God is a double edged sword capable of dividing truth from error and is every bit applicable today as it was thousands of years ago.

We had an excellent opportunity this morning to discuss the blatant error of Oprah Winfrey's new church and spiritual teaching classes. A friend passed on the you tube link and I previewed it and then thought it would be excellent to hear what my boys thought of what she had to say.

Click here: YouTube - The Church of Oprah Exposed

We spent several hours afterward discussing the error and the possible reasons that she or anyone could possibly believe in these ridiculous deceptions. They seemed to be out of this world to us but to the undiscerning there is mass appeal.

After viewing the video for the second time I asked them to raise their hands at the first subtle indicator of the New Age philosophy. (a test) They both picked up the first one and just about every one after that. We may go back and study each of these indicators and compare them with the Truth.

One of my mentor friends used to say, "Without Biblical conviction you WILL go the way of culture. (whatever way the wind is blowing in your culture at that time and season)

Viewing this video was an exercise worth it's weight in gold for the opportunity for me to expose my boys to what they will come across in the world. Even if they do not become swayed by it themselves they will need to be prepared to give and answer in due season to someone who is caught in New Age philosophy's clutches. I want them to be prepared enough to be able to witness articulately the way of salvation to someone who is desperately lost even if they do not know it.

This is what I call a REAL high school education!

Let Prayer Change your Life

One of the many benefits of having an online book business is that we frequently are mixing with many gold mines of knowledge and inspiration (books) that are in my search list. I finally found Let Prayer Change Your Life by Becky Tirabassi. I have wanted this book for some time but never got around to ordering it. Now with the next three months ahead of me I have started tackling this great lagging discipline in my life since we have moved into the city 2 1/2 years ago. (Yea, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it)

One of the impressions that I get already, in the first chapter, is that it is not prayer that will change your life but committed communion with God will. The time spent with Someone who not only loves us deeply and sacrificially but just being in His presence WILL change us into His likeness. What a promise!

Oh, how I long to change. (No, not my flesh, I expect that will put up a fight- but my spirit. ) How can you not want to know the author of the greatest story ever told, the God of creation and of all human history?

This is one of the three or four books to tackle in the next three months, along with a study on the character of God and the book of Proverbs and another book that has been chompin' at the bit, Child Training Tips: What I Wish I Knew When My Children Were Young by Reb Bradley! More on this great book in a few weeks as I get to start it.