Work 'em while they are young

Dan has been after me to come up with a chore chart for a while now. I've been meaning to make one, but like all my ideas this didn't ever come to fruition. The only reason Dan wanted me to make one was because he felt the kids needed a way to earn some money. The only problem is that I don't want to pay them. But he finally won me over by telling me that it would be a good learning experience for them to go through the whole process...you know, earn the money, save it, and buy something that they wanted. Plus, we could teach them tithing this way. Hard to teach tithing when they never earn anything. That was probably the best argument for me :) So I sat down and finally decided what chores they have to do just because they are a member of the family. Things like make their bed, clean their room, take care of their dishes, etc. Then after their "have to's" are done any extras they do they can earn a little something. Well, Caden is super good at this. He is my helper and he knows exactly what he is saving for...Lego's, what else? He's such a sweetheart that he would help me with stuff even before he was getting paid for it. However, the majority of stuff was done while Kember was a school so I decided to hit the chore list hard on Saturday when Kember was home. Surprisingly enough the kids were really willing and wanting to go through the list. Some of the chores were hard for them and they wanted to stop in the middle, but after explaining that they don't get paid for half finished jobs, they finished....then asked to do the next one.Poor Caden gets gypped in the picture area apparently. I had a picture of him, but I can't find it anywhere. He's a great helper though. Kember earned the most and Cole just spluttered (is that a word?) along at his own snail pace...but he did it, and I discovered that he is really good, or rather, really likes to wipe the mirrors and windows. They were really proud of themselves, and couldn't wait to tell Daddy how much they had earned. Too bad it isn't Saturday tomorrow...my house could use some sprucing :)