One of the things I really love about homeschooling, especially if you are an independent homeschooler or you are enrolled with a homeschool provider with an open curriculum, is that you as a parent can prioritize teaching your kids what really matters.

It’s our first year to have a homeschool provider. We had been independent since the beginning (since birth!).

I love the freedom and the opportunity to customize our children’s lessons to what I think they need to learn in order to survive.

One of the myths of homeschooling is that homeschooled kids are shielded from reality. The truth is that homeschooled kids deal with reality every single day.

Let me give you some examples.

In a private school that our family investigated or checked out when we were considering enrolling our older children in a brick-and-mortar school, the school owner toured us one day and proudly shared with us that their students washed their own plates after they have their lunch and they have regular cleaning schedules for the students as well to teach them responsibility and to value cooperation and community. She also shared with us that they teach their students practices on how they could help save the earth and how they could be ecofriendly.

These are all nice stuff.

But we decided not to push through because of several reasons.

One of them is that our kids also learn these things at home and do these things at home and so much more at a fraction of the school’s tuition fee.

Since my kids were little, I had given them many opportunities to be involved at home. My kids are naturally curious and helpful. They are also naturally proactive and want to be involved. So, I have given them, little by little, opportunities to help out and be involved since they were toddlers.

That’s why I would call our home economics lessons life schooling.

When they were toddlers, they loved helping put the grocery away. Imagine that! They also loved helping in sorting the laundry. Our maids before were amazed because they were familiar with the clothes of the people in our household. They knew it so well that they would even correct our maids when they make a mistake.

The kids loved washing the dishes. I think the truth is they loved playing with the soap and water. When I let them do this task, we usually run out of dishwashing liquid right away. That is the cost of their education in the dishwashing department!

They sometimes argue about who will sweep the floor after meals. I wish that this will never change until they are teenagers.

Our boys are not always organized. It must be natural for them to make a mess. But, there are days when they are so engrossed in fixing their things and their room. They will not stop, even though it’s already late into the night until they have fixed their things and their room.

I do my best to instill in them the discipline to put things back in their proper places, to clean as they go, a discipline that those in the restaurant industry strictly practice. (I was once a restaurant manager.)

What do we do as part of our home economics lessons?

Our kids have age-appropriate household chores.

I let them get involved in the household chores that my husband and I do. We teach and train them until they can do these tasks on their own.

Our goal is not good grades. Our goal is ultimately independence. So that one day, when they are living on their own, they can do those tasks even if they do not have a maid or a helper doing these tasks for them.

The kids help me or my husband out when we are preparing food. We assign them tasks that they can do at their age.

We bake together also. We make our own pizza. We’ve had our own share of kitchen adventures. It’s fun working together to prepare food that we would also consume together afterward.

Before meals, we ask them to help set the table and put the food on plates. After every meal, they have to put their plates, utensils and glasses on the kitchen sink. They take turns cleaning up the dining area and kitchen after each meal.

Cleaning up after each meal is a team effort.

Our eldest is now 11 years old. He already knows how to operate our washing machine. He knows how to wash clothes and hang them to dry. He knows how to sort the laundry properly. He knows how to fold his clothes and put them away in his closet. He knows how to cook rice using our Instapot and our rice cooker. He knows how to boil an egg. He knows how to cook chicken nuggets, ham and burgers using our oven toaster. He knows how to make sandwiches and toast them in the oven if he likes. He loves making butter toast with his brothers. He knows how to mop the floor and use our vacuum cleaner aside from sweeping the floor. Soon, I will teach him how to cook other simple dishes and how to iron his own clothes.

My two younger boys aged 8 and 5 also have their own chores. When we had maids in the past, I would tell the maids to let the kids help out because they usually do not want them to be involved. Sometimes, letting the kids help out can delay the accomplishment of tasks. But they wouldn’t learn if we do not let them have those opportunities to practice those tasks. I think that it was a blessing in disguise that we eventually could not find maids anymore. The boys had more practice exercises.

Now, it has become part of their routine and duty to help sort the clean laundry, fold their clothes and put them back in their closets. They also need to make sure their dirty clothes are in their hamper and not scattered in the room or on the floor.

Earlier today over lunch, we shared what makes each one of us in the family happy. One of the things I shared is that it makes me happy when the boys happily do their chores or even do chores that I do not expect them to do. One example is when my second child washed the dishes after cleaning up the table and sweeping the floor. I was supposed to wash the dishes. But I got tired and rested a bit. By the time I went into the kitchen to wash the dishes, I saw that the kitchen sink was already clean. Wow! What a blessing and a pleasant surprise!

Another example is when my eldest son chooses to mop the floor aside from sweeping the floor when it is his turn to clean up after a meal. He doesn’t need to do that daily but he sometimes chooses to go the extra mile.

The same is true with my youngest child who is only 5 years old. He sometimes washes the utensils and sweeps the floor as well.

Those kinds of gestures really warm my heart. When I see or know that my kids do chores not for the grades but out of the purity of their hearts and out of love for others.

I think this is one of the advantages of not emphasizing grades to kids. Kids learn to do good things and doing good becomes the reward. It gives them happiness and fulfillment being capable to do something and being able to help someone and make another person happy.

That to me is the best education! That is life schooling! Learning through living. Learning to live life fully in the real world.

Because the truth is we all live in families and we need to learn how to help each other out. We need to learn how to interact with the people we live with in such a way that we contribute to their happiness, we know how to show love, compassion and cooperation, and we all contribute to the accomplishment of our family goals.

One day, they will start their own families. It is my hope and my prayer that their homeschool lessons now would prepare them for their future families. I think their future wives (if God calls them to the married vocation) would thank me for raising them this way. Their future wives would also thank my husband for setting an example to them of helping out at home and not leaving all the housework to the woman of the house.

Do you also give your kids household chores? What do you ask them to do on a daily or weekly basis?