Everyone helps

Our new homestead and project for the next several months is definitely a family affair.  All three kids have picked up hammers, drills, sledges, pry bars, shovels, rakes and more to pitch in and help with the work around here.  They have raked leaves, moved dirt, hauled wood and dirt and gravel and even demolished an old playhouse all on their own.  We turned them loose on it one afternoon having given them safety precautions and the proper tools.  They had so much fun that they didn’t want to quit once it started getting dark.  My son finished off the job on his own a few days later by pulling the 4x4 posts out of the ground all on his own.  He even moved all the scrap wood to the appropriate save or burn piles without being asked.

No one wanted to quit just because it was getting dark.

I love seeing my children get their hands dirty and pour some of their own sweat into this project.  Like anything else, they appreciate things more when they have had a hand in it.  Allowing them to play such a visible role does wonders for their confidence as well.  They feel so grown up when we hand them a drill or a small sledge and ask them to take care of a task while we take on something else.  The responsibility boosts their egos in a really healthy way.  My dad never seemed afraid of taking on a large fix-it task and trusted me to help him even at a young age.  That built something invaluable in me.  He taught me to think that I could do just about anything—at the very least I could at least try.  I want my children to have that same confidence.  It’s so great to see them working together too.  When they started demo on the playhouse, they divided out the jobs and assigned the sections where each would be working.  They each took on pieces of a larger task and worked as a team to accomplish a larger task.  Isn’t that what they will be doing in their adult jobs one day?