Teaching Children to Care for their Stewardship

Image from: insideministry.me

I'm a pretty scattered person. I loose my keys often. I am always looking for a pen. My mind moves faster than my body so when I go to put something down - my mind is on something else and I end up accidentally putting it in some random place.

Needless to say, teaching my children to take care of their things, put things back where they belong, and to have a place for everything is a bit of a challenge. It's a good idea to practice what you preach.  I know God has blessed us with the use of these things (and they really all belong to Him) and that we show gratitude by taking good care of them.

I have made numerous efforts to label drawers, shelves, cupboards... in order to have a place for everything and everything in it's place, but things always get back into disarray somehow. I just can't keep up with each of the kids or with myself (urgent things seem to come up often and I don't put everything away every time).

Well, recently, we decided to try to get our house ready to sell.  I don't know if we will sell it, but we were prompted to get it ready to do so. So we've been painting and cleaning and clearing things out.  We are storing things in our garage for now. I have quite a few plastic bins full of books, 2 boxes of toys, several boxes of crafts/school supplies, some boxes of clothes, etc.

I packed everything out of my younger boys' dresser except 2 pairs of PJs, 5 shirts, 2 shorts, 2 pants, and a church outfit. I also left 2 jackets hung in their closet.

I packed up all of the toys except 2 baby dolls (for Ladybug), 2 stuffed animals, a baby blanket, a small plastic treehouse, a car, a wagon and a ball.

My older children cleared their room and left only the essentials.

I packed away most of the blankets (blankets were a big mess-contributer around here).

We each have a school box with our school supplies in them, labeled with our names, as well as a bin to put our school box in and our books and papers.

I made a rule that if anything is left out of place, it will go in a box from which we will need to earn it back with jobs.

I also made the rule that no one can get anything out of the garage without asking me first. My son asked me if he could get a book out the other day. "Yes," I said, "As soon as you put your other literature book away." (They each get to have 6-7 books checked out: math, writing, literature, leadership, history, science, and an optional skill).

I am still working on packing things away, but I have already seen great fruits from having less things to take care of.

My younger boys put their own laundry away - it is easy when the drawers are not overflowing and they can tell where each thing goes! It is easy to see if someone failed to put something away during the day. My 6 year old is actually putting his crayons away carefully and putting them back in his bin so he doesn't loose them.

I realized that this whole experience is teaching us stewardship. We had more stuff then we could handle. Once we are able to take care of a few things, we may be able to handle a few more things, but for now, this seems to be all we can do. I may even label hair brushes, plates, cups, blankets so that each person has just one to take care of - until we learn to put those things away as well. I know it sounds extreme, but desperate times call for desperate measures right?

We are actually all enjoying this clarity! Well, maybe the younger boys would like a few more toys out, but I have explained to them that we cannot handle it yet - not until I see them put the few things we already have out away every time. It is hard with the baby who plays with the toys, but she is not too young to learn either and they can help me remind her.

If we don't actually move, but we learn to take care of our things this way - it will have been so worth it! Maybe we will get to the point where we can put some of those things in the garage back in the house because we have learned to put things away and take care of them. Or maybe we will just get rid of them all (except the books) since we love living without so much stuff anyway! Whatever happens - it has been a great learning experience. Even for me... I am keeping better track of my pen!

I know I still need to write a follow-up blog post on "watering". I just was too short on time today and I wanted to mention what I am working on and why I have had little time to write. I would love to hear what people have tried in order to teach their kids good stewardship!