This is Daniel’s week to be in charge of the dinner dishes. The older three children rotate meal assignments. Right now Daniel has dinner, Joshua has lunch and Rachel has breakfast. When I considered homeschooling, I never really took into account the impact of the ‘home’ part of the homeschooling. Although we are busy and have several activities that take us out and about, for the most part we are here at home. Living and playing and learning and MESSING UP THE HOME!! This holds true for the house and especially the kitchen, since we eat all three meals together.
Daniel takes his kitchen KP duty seriously.
The fact that there are three older children makes the delegation very tidy. 
The kitchen/meal work required involves clearing and setting the table for your assigned meal, helping to serve people during the meal, and doing all clean up afterward (including putting food away, washing and loading dishes, and wiping down the table, counters and island). Breakfast comes with the added responsibility of unloading the dishwasher. It’s countered by the fact that the dishes are minimal (usually just cereal bowls or a few plates) and the only thing to put away are some boxes of cereal. Lunch is usually the easiest assignment as the dishes are often light (the kids vie for paper plates as much as possible) and there isn’t a lot of extra time for lingering. Plus you can have two directions to hand the work off -you can blame breakfast for leaving dirty dishes around or “forget” to finish the lunch work and hope the dinner slave, I mean laborer, will take care of it for you.
The island is going to get clean, by golly, if he has to beat it into submission.
We’ve tried several variations of meal chore assignments and this one seems to work the smoothest. The kids are very proficient at their KP duty. They know how to bag or box up leftovers. They wash pans and load the dishwasher like experts. They each have their own style and pace at which they like to work. They still grumble and drag their feet at times but mostly they are cheerful, hard workers.
Really, who wouldn’t want this young man helping in the kitchen?
Kathy
Come on over Daniel! Help me clean my kitchen, you did SUCH a great job!
Good Mom, Kathy, to be so consistent in all of your plans. I think you are very good at finishing what you start.
Thanks, Jennifer. I think housekeeping is difficult because it is NEVER ending! Child training is challenging. Being consistent is nearly impossible.
I’ll be sure to send Daniel right over. ha!
Homeschooling and keeping up a home are really two FT jobs! I couldn’t homeschool if the kids didn’t help out around the house!
Our nonhomeschooling friends think we make our kids work too much…..