Q & A with Kendra: Involving Younger Children

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What are your best tips for involving your younger children in the tasks the older ones are doing?

I’m not sure I’ve ever really put much thought into how to involve the younger
ones that way. Some of my older kids like having a younger buddy around, and
so typically when it’s time to do chores the older ones are bargaining for which
little guy gets to do chores with them. It’s not something we’ve mandated; it just
happens.

Often when it’s time to pass a chore from an older sibling to a younger one,
however, I’ll have the older child teach the younger one how to do the chore that’s
being passed. This accomplishes two things: 1. The chore gets taught (obviously!
), and 2. It takes me out of the equation. The more a homeschooling mom can
delegate responsibility to the older children, the better. (Note: By that I mean a
teen’s responsibilities, not a mom’s. I’m not talking about passing off those tasks
that a mom should be doing, like parenting the younger ones). It’s far too easy
for me to micromanage my kids and as they grow older, I want to do as little of
that as possible.

If you can put a positive spin on the tasks the older ones are doing, the younger
ones should want to hang around them. “Want to go help sister empty the
dishwasher?”, said with a big smile and a tone that makes it sound like the little
guy was just handed the opportunity of a lifetime. I try to put the kibosh on
grumbling and I try to make school look like it’s so much fun, everyone should
want to do it!

And that goes for me as well. The old adage, “If mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody
happy” is truer than I’d like to admit most days. If what we older ones are doing
looks interesting enough to the younger ones, they’ll want to be involved.

Kendra Fletcher is the homeschooling mother of eight, ages 18 down to 3. She has never known what it means to homeschool without the presence of preschoolers, and loves to encourage other moms beginning their homeschool journeys with little ones underfoot. Her website and blog can be found at Preschoolers and Peace.