The success of this family depends on everyone doing their part.

A few years back our family took a Homeschool field trip to the Genesee Country Village, a living museum. The home that stood out most was this little pioneer homestead (pictured). To our amazement, there were 10 children raised in this little one room cabin.

The woman pretending to live in the house was telling us the history of the house and the family that lived there. The husband’s first wife died and the oldest daughter had to step in and become mom to her seven siblings. As we talked about the hardships they had to endure, she commented, “the success of this family, and ultimately their survival depended upon every member of the family working together and doing their share”.

That comment stuck and we immediately implemented it with our family. With eight children, Homeschooling, operating Pennywise Learning, and other outside responsibilities there is no way mom and dad can do it all. We need every member of our household working together to do their share. Our success and survival depends on it.

Besides cleaning up after themselves, everyone in our house has daily/weekly chores. All of our older children can cook meals, clean, do laundry, change diapers, etc, etc. No one person has to shoulder the load by themselves but everyone is expected to do their part.

Occasionally, we have to sit down as a family and remind everyone that we do actually intend to live by this philosophy and that they are expected to participate but for the most part it really does work well. I highly recommend implementing it in your home if you haven’t already.

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