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Home & Garden Train Your Children To Keep A Lovely Home In the A Lovely Dwelling Place, I talked about some practical things we can do to decorate our homes and turn them into places of beauty. Keeping a lovely home is one of the things we can do to mirror a significant attribute of God--His beauty. In Psalm 84:1 we read: "How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!" (NIV) I am a mother of two school-age daughters, and have found that children are not born with neat and tidy habits. However, we can train our children to be disciplined, industrious keepers of home, their bedrooms and belongings. Here are some of the methods I have used to accomplish this goal. 1. We must be disciplined keepers of the home ourselves. It seems obvious, but we cannot train our children to be organized and tidy in the home unless we are. We have to set the example. I have found that the multiple demands of being a wife/mother/businesswoman have forced me to leave behind the carefree habits of my teen years and become a skillful manager of time, money, and home life. The best way for me to be an example of discipline is to humbly rely on the Lord for His wisdom, strength, and ability to carry out my daily responsibilities. I need to set aside a time to pray each day and ask God to help me set my priorities. Next I keep two notebooks - one for home, and one for my business - so I can write down the most important things I need to accomplish in those areas. We can't always remember everything we have to do, so notebooks and planners are helpful. 2. Ask your children to put away their toys, shoes, notebooks, and other belongings after use, every day. Children as young as two or three years old can put away their toys at night. This can be accomplished by placing a large box or large plastic container in their closet. It is also best that you train them to put things away daily, not weekly. Very young children can also be trained to make their beds, put clothes in a hamper, put shoes and coats away, and clear their plates after dinner. It's tempting to do these tasks for your toddlers, but in the long run your home will remain tidier if they know how to clean up after themselves. It also serves as great training for them as they become old enough to do more difficult chores. Children seven years and older can separate white from colored clothes, wash a load of laundry, then fold and put it away. They can vacuum, dust, and polish furniture in your living room and bedrooms. You will have to spend time with them, teaching them how you like your picture frames and other decor dusted and polished. Be patient. In due time they will learn to do these tasks quite skillfully, with little or no help from you. Older children can take out the garbage, sort out items for recycling, wash dishes, load or unload the dishwasher, and also help younger siblings get dressed and brush their hair. We take turns doing dishes, or taking out the garbage, so no one has to do it all the time. 3. Buy your children a bulletin board of their own, where they can post their latest drawings, paintings, and poems. A bulletin board is a great place to display children's drawings and poems, and eliminate some paper clutter. Use pushpins to tack their works onto the board. Eventually they can keep their most prized works in a folder, and recycle or throw away the other ones. Buy pushpins that sharply contrast with the color of your rug or floor, so if they fall your kids can easily spot them and avoid stepping on them. 4. Pay your children to do special jobs and chores. Naturally, there are some chores children are expected to do daily and should not be paid for, such as making their beds and putting away their clothes, shoes, and schoolbooks. Last summer, however, I began paying my twelve-year-old daughter, Celine, a few dollars to mow our lawn, or to thoroughly organize the items and boxes stored in our garage. Now Celine and my younger daughter, Monique, both enjoy getting paid to do special jobs. They like saving up that money to buy things they want. I also believe as our children get paid for a job well done it helps build healthy self-esteem and confidence. 5. Buy storage boxes to keep gloves, tights, jewelry, camisoles, and other items needed for church or special occasions. My daughters share a bedroom and a bunk bed, and underneath the bottom bunk they each have a storage box where accessories like tights, hairclips, and ribbons are kept. These items often took a long time to locate when getting dressed for church on Sunday morning. Now they merely reach under their bed and can automatically find what they need. What a timesaver! 6. Purchase an inexpensive calendar for each of your school-age children so they can keep track of days, dates, and their schedules. As both of my daughters observed how I wrote upcoming events and special notes on my calendar, they asked for their own calendars. They tacked their calendars onto their bulletin boards and began writing their daily schedules and reminders. They have learned to keep track of days, months, and holidays much better as a result. 7. Once or twice a year, have your children sort through their old toys and give them to Goodwill or other charitable organizations. For two summers now I have scheduled a day when I placed a huge empty box in my daughters' bedroom and asked them to put in it any of their old toys and belongings they wanted to give away. It uncluttered their closet, and also taught them to decide on what they really need, or don't need. It also created a desire in them to share things with needy people. 8. Teach your children how to prepare a simple meal. It will be a great help to you as a mother and home manager if you train your children to prepare easy meals for themselves like sandwiches served with various fruit or carrot slices on the side, ramen soup with vegetable slices and toast, or microwave burritos or frozen dinners. Teach them the process of baking, boiling, frying, or microwaving a few different meals, and also walk them through each step of the clean-up process. You will create more time for yourself to do other tasks, while helping your children to be more self-reliant. 9. Keep your children's thought-life lovely by monitoring their media intake of TV, books, magazines, movies, the Internet, and radio. In Philippians 4:8-9 (NASB) we read, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. . . .and the God of peace shall be with you." Keeping our home and surroundings beautiful is important, but keeping our thought lives pure and lovely is also important. We need to make sure that what we read, hear, and see follows the Philippians 4:8-9 standard of what our minds should be thinking on. Carefully review what is entering your mind through your eyes and ears. Ask yourself if these themes edify you, or your children? Parents should also carefully monitor the library books their children read, what radio stations and music they're listening to, what magazines they look at, and what internet sites they visit. Do subscribe to wholesome and entertaining magazines for your children. Provide them with also with books, videos, and music that will encourage them in godly living. It is time consuming to do these things, but the good fruit it produces in your children's' hearts and lives will be worth it. May these ideas help and inspire you in your pursuit to transform your home into a lovely dwelling place. Jennifer Anne F. Messing was born in Manila, Philippines, and now resides in Oregon with her husband and three children. She is the author of numerous articles and poems published in seventeen different magazines, and recently included in two books: Families Can Bounce Back and More God's Abundance. She teaches writing, is a licensed hairstylist, and a church vocalist. Email: MnJMessing@cs.com. |
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