“Historically, stewardship was the responsibility given to household servants to bring food and drinks to a castle dining hall. The term was then expanded to indicate a household employee’s responsibility for managing household or domestic affairs.” (Wikipedia)

A biblical worldview of stewardship is usually defined as people taking care of all things God given, including our time, our finances, our responsibilities, our families and our homes.

It’s for this reason my husband and I give our children allowance, we assign them household chores and we allow them small pets. We believe that stewardship is an important lesson to instill right from the start.

How will you budget that money? In what ways will you keep your pet safe? Why do we need a clean house? These are some of the questions that experience offers them answers to.

Graham learned the importance of saving when he flew to Calgary a few years ago. Nathaniel learned the importance of responsibility when he left the gate open and the pug ran away (no worries–we caught her). And Maddy learned the importance of having a clean room when friends dropped in unexpectedly.

I could take care of these things on my own, but in some areas I purposely step back and allow them to learn so they will reap the reward of a job well done.

With that said, I would like to focus on a child being a good steward of his/her room and home.  I have a few great tips that helped change the way my kids did chores and I want to share them with you!!

Use Definite Terms

When I was volunteering in the K-1 class at my children’s former school I noticed that the teacher had a method of getting the class cleaned up without the usual grumbles and complaining.

Mrs. B. would announce, “Okay, children, I want everyone to pick up 20 things off of the floor.” And within minutes the class was clean without complaint. I got to wondering how she managed to get children to obey her so quickly. Her technique looked effortless while mine was more like bathing a rabid cat.

My sister Betty, who is a teacher’s assistant, pointed out that it’s the same method she uses in class. Instead of children being overwhelmed by a term they can’t specifically define, cleaning is put into definite terms.

I can’t count the many times I’ve walked into my boys room to see that their definition of clean doesn’t match my level of expectation.

And even if I define that level of expectation there is always a lolly-gogger who doesn’t carry his share of the load. I spent the majority of my time behind a bench with a gavel making judgment calls on who was working and who was not–until I changed my technique.

Cleaning a room is simple. Each child is instructed to pick up 10 pieces of laundry and report back to mom. Rather than focusing on each other they are concentrating on the count and there’s usually a hustle to be done first. Next I might send them in with a garbage bag and instructions to pick up 15 pieces of trash. This works for Lego too—telling a child to pick up forty pieces of Lego goes farther than saying, “Clean up the Lego, boys.”

My children rarely to never complain, in fact I just tested my theory a second ago by walking into the room and saying, “Okay guys, the room looks pretty clean, but I think that you should each pick up 20 more things to make it better.”

What was their response? My request was received an energetic, “Okay,” as they hopped off of their beds and started in on the search.

And another idea…

Just last week I was talking to my friend Sandra about having our kids clean up their rooms. Before I even tell you what she said, I have to mention the fact that she had the most organized toy room I’ve ever seen. That any of us have seen. It wasn’t just tidy–it was so well organized that they knew where to find every toy regardless of how small it was. A little different story than my kids mindlessly tossing stuff in the toy box.

Again her strategy is about using definite terms. What she said to me made so much sense, especially now that my children are getting older and I’m expecting more from them. She said to give them definite steps when cleaning a room. So for example if I want Nathaniel to clean his room, I give him a list that says:

  • Clean off your dresser and wipe it clean
  • Make your bed
  • Pick up your laundry
  • Put away toys
  • Put the books in the shelves
  • etc..

See how that’s different than saying, “Clean up your room?”

I hope these little ideas help you along. And for moms? I have an awesome house cleaning schedule. If you haven’t checked that one out yet, I think you should take a peek!

I love to see them work without complaint, but even more than that I enjoy seeing them grow into responsible people. They’re working with the little I give them now, but one day I know they’ll be handling much.

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’” Matthew 5:21, NIV

Meet the Schacht Six

Our family (without Brendan) in Calgary.

Maddy’s at the top – she loves to cook, Graham is in orange – he loves to save,
and Nathaniel 

is in the center holding a brand new rock. 😉 

Before closing today, I hope you don’t mind if I give a little shout out to my husband Michael? He’s the hottie in the black tshirt. *wink*
In case you didn’t know, and how would you know… Michael is the man behind my ministry, and the one who woos me closer Christ. 
I just can’t say enough about how awesome he is, but I’ll save all that for my book!
Any time I offer freebies to you such as printables, monthly calendars, or eBooks, I have Michael to thank. I host all of my images through his company Art Bookbindery. He’s also the one who takes care of things for me like getting my dot com. 
Because of everything he’s done for Time-Warp Wife, I wanted to introduce you to him and tell you a bit about what he does behind the desk every day. Hope you don’t mind?
Art Bookbindery empowers writers to self publish. They specialize in short run prints, and also do a lot of children’s books and family histories. Before I was blogging, I was their design coordinator, designing the interior and the exterior of books. The love of books and writing has carried over to blogging. It’s really interesting how the two are such a good fit. Just like Michael and I! 
And so if you have an eBook that you’ve ever thought about printing, a family history that you’re putting together, or you’re thinking of self publishing a book–Michael’s your guy. That’s what he does, and one thing I know for sure is that he takes good care of his authors. Here’s a link to his website: www.artbookbindery.com

And here’s Brendan. Brendan works with Michael, lives in his own condo, plays any instrument he can get his hands on, and likes to eat dinner at our house.

Anytime you see something pretty on my blog, I’ve probably run it past Brendan. He helped me design this webpage, and every time I’m adding text to an image I’m usually asking, “What about this, Bren? What about this?” Truth is I drive him a little bit crazy, but that kid has great taste! And besides that–I feed him dinner. 😉

He’s also the go-to guy for all of our computer problems and can master them all. In a family of six he’s kept pretty busy, let me tell you!

And Bailey the Pug? I’ll save that little one for another day…

You are loved by an almighty God,

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