The Board

One of the things that my parents did a really good job on was teaching us kids how to work.  We are a working family and I will always be grateful for that skill they taught us.  So in trying to follow their footsteps in that parenting aspect I introduce you to The Board.  I don't know when or how it started, I think like everything it came from necessity.  With eight kids running in and out of the house and before cell phones, we needed one message board to manage the house.  Nothing grandiose just a large white marker board that was put up right next to the door that everyone traveled in and out of.  Everyday we came home from school we had a job on The Board.  It was an unwritten rule that as soon as we got home we were allowed a snack then onto our chores, even before homework.  We were not allowed to tamper with The Board, and I'm not sure why but we were not allowed to erase our job until it was complete.  I'm not sure if that was ever explained to us that way or it was just unanimously understood.
Now I have tried different versions of The Board before.  When my children were really young I laminated pictures of jobs and put them next to the kids names in the "to do" column, in which they could move over to the "done" column once completed however if I found their work unsatisfactory I reserved the right to move the picture back over to the "to do" column.  This board actually worked quite well, the only problem was a child playing with and loosing the pictures or not having a laminated picture of a new job I wanted them to do.

Now that my kids are bigger and can read I went out and bought our new Board.  As I hung it up for FHE I explained the purpose and rules of The Board. My oldest asked, "Do we get allowances for these chores, everyone in my class gets an allowance but me?"  my answer, "Absolutely NOT.  You do the chores because you live here, have clean clothes on your back a warm place to sleep at night and food in your tummy."  I am a firm believer in doing things because its the right thing to do not because you get rewarded. Too many kids nowadays expect something.  I am trying to get rid of the every kid gets a trophy epidemic.  What ever happened to the satisfaction of doing a good job., and pulling your own weight.
There is no reward system to get them started just a no nonsense just do it attitude.
William sensing an opportunity to schmooze me over asked, "can we add chores to our own list?"  (such a kiss up)  I replied in the affirmative as long as the ones I wrote were completed first.  So here goes the experiment, actually no its not an experiment its a new lifestyle for the Stringham family another generation of workers.