5 homesteading chores a 1 yr old can do

I just love it when my baby sister comes out to garden with me.

One of the most memorable days of the year thus far was the first Spring day that I brought Gracey out to train her to help me in the garden.  We planted pineapples out in the front landscaping and hauled fallen limbs and heaps of weeds to the backyard together.  Then we picked wildflowers to display on our kitchen table.  Sweet memories.

Since then she's come outside with me numerable times.  Each time, I've been trying to be diligent to think of ways to teach her to help and be productive while still making it a fun time for her.

And you know what?  

The more chores I add to her list, the more eager she is to don her little apron and come back out to help again.  Success!

I'm so excited about this because I'm a firm believer in the principle that the more industrious a person becomes, the more their sense of security and fulfillment will increase.

I want to bless my baby sister by encouraging her to be useful, constructive... industrious.  Starting now.

So, I've developed a list of 5 homesteading chores that my one-year-old sister can handle on her own - and I will strive to train her to cheerfully fulfill these chores day by day as we visit the garden together.  Each chore is actually very helpful to me, and doesn't slow down my work too much at all.  

Gracey has been a huge blessing to me in this area because she's helped me to be diligent to save the weeds instead of just chunking them over the fence like I had been in the habit of doing.  She simply grabs her red pail from the shed, follows me to the garden and holds the bucket out so I can have a convenient place to drop the weeds that I pull up.  While it's saving me time because I'm not having to continually switch positions to pile the weeds in one place, I do have to spend the difference training her to be attentive, patient and careful in her placement of the bucket.  I also try to be kind to her and be as focused and quick about weeding as possible so that she doesn't feel like she has to just stand around all day.  Her reward comes at the end when she gets to visit our backyard barnyard and feed the weeds to animals. 

"Here chickens!"

The same concept here applies to harvesting.  The other day she carried the little basket that we used to collect our Spring pea harvest.  I had to watch her carefully so that all of the pods made it safely to the kitchen and she didn't sling any out as she ran to proudly present that basket full of peas to Mama!

Caution:  After watching me weed once or twice, Gracey decided it looked fun to rip green things up. The result was a mildly damaged baby fig tree we have growing in a container in our garden.  I didn't scold her because how was she to know any better?  I used it as an opportunity to explain to her the difference between weeds and "good plants".  Then I told her to "be gentle" and "no touch" until she gets "bigger and bigger".  Remember that a toddler is not going to be able to remember and/or resist the temptation to copy your actions and "help" weed the garden, so never take your eyes off of them around the garden until you are confident that they have a solid understanding of careful weeding and harvesting.

We're big fans of mulch.  Gracey's is learning to be helpful here as well.  While her contribution to the effort isn't huge right now, I'm confident that as she grows and learns, she'll be able to help more and more.  As of right now, I just help her fill up her red pail with hay or wood chips and after gathering up a much larger quantity of mulch to carry myself, we head back out to the garden.  She just follows me right now and I do the mulching alone so as to protect the tender plants.  As I work, I make sure to talk to her about what I'm doing.  I know that right now she doesn't understand moisture retention, worm aeration, weed supression, etc., etc., but as we continue to discuss these concepts with her eventually she will begin to pick up a working knowledge of these things -- and at a much earlier age than I did, to boot!  It's also training me to be repetitive, teach in simple language and define words as I go.  Eventually, as she learns to be gentle, I'll begin to teach her how to mulch as well.  As she grows stronger, she'll be able to actually haul more considerable amounts of mulch with her wagon.

Gracey diligently puts away her pail.

Tip: I want to be diligent to help teach Gracey an important principle in work ethic: "the job isn't done until the tools are cleaned and put away where they go".  Obviously, this principle applies in almost every conceivable chore one can do, but I was reminded to teach her this when I gave her her own little red pail to use.  I make an effort to say this phrase aloud to her every time I instruct her to put her pail in the shed.  Right now she only understands the word "away", but eventually the repetition in saying the full phrase aloud will help her to memorize the principle.  When she gets older, I plan to have her recite it every time we finish chores.  I also have to remember to recite the phrase with a cheerful voice, so as to represent diligence as a blessed character trait - not a burdensome one.

We try to keep the ground clear of sticks to make mowing easier on the guys, and Gracey's assistance in this has been valuable.  

Initially, I trained her by bending down to her level and talking about "sticks" in a very excited and animated voice.  Then I began to point them out in the yard, repeating the word "stick" several times.  Naturally she began to look around in earnest to discover what wonderful thing I was talking about.  So then I walked her over to a branch that was large enough to be noticeable but small enough for Gracey to carry, and exclaimed "I found a stick! Here it is!" and picked it up.  I made a big deal out of it, repeating words like "here's a stick!", "pick up a stick!", "Gracey find a stick!".  I let her "hold the stick" and told her to "be careful!"  Then, "Gracey, I know!  Let's put the stick away!"  Of course, she got all excited at the prospect.  So I set her down and grabbed a branch of my own and dragged it to the pile that we have by the back fence.  She followed me with "Gracey's stick" and then I showed her how fun it was to "put the stick away, hurry!"  She cheered, "away!" and then threw her branch into the pile.  "Let's find another stick, Gracey, another stick to put away!"

That Helpful Tot!

Pretty soon, I was able to just walk through the yard with her, point to a branch and say, "Gracey, go put that stick away, hurry!"  She'd scamper over to drag the stick to the pile, and I was able to continue what I was doing, confident that she'd complete the chore.  However, I learned to be kind about how often I asked her to pick up sticks, because after a while it began to become tedious.  Eventually she'll need to learn to persevere through monotony, but because she's only a year old I don't think she's ready for that yet.  So I limit myself on how often I ask her to put a stick away, and I try to take some time to help her with Stick Patrol and remind her how fun it is. 

She hasn't only helped pick up random fallen sticks under the shade trees in our backyard, but she's also assisted McCauley in the front when she was pruning hedges by picking up afterwards and piling in the wheelbarrow, as well as helped Daddy and Jasco around the yard when they were cutting back branches.  

Caution:  Obviously, sticks can sometimes be dangerous.  Surprisingly, I haven't had the problem lately of Gracey trying to put them in her mouth and she doesn't seem to run wildly with them yet, but I'm watching for those things.  I don't like to be over-protective, but one year olds are only one year wise.  Just watch.  And make sure that they are safely out of the way of falling branches when they're helping with cutting and pruning. 

Toys, trash and other random objects seem to grow like weeds in our backyard.  This is a perfect chore for Gracey, and she seems to really enjoy it!  We help her bring her wagon outside and sing the same little ditty that we sing when we have her clean up her toys in the house: "away, away, go put your toys away!"  She'll often spot things to put up herself, but we do have to point out a lot of things to her.  I can see this exercise broadening her vocabulary as she learns the names of the objects we're helping her to spy out.  

Gracey carts her toys "home".

Then, when she's finished, I say: "go home!"  She loves this part.  She grabs her wagon and runs as fast as she can to the house.  We have an outdoor room you have to go through to get to the back door, and she's already had the chance to develop problem-solving skills as she worked to get her wagon through the screen door that's built to spring shut.  She was so determined this morning that even after her wagon had hit a rut, turned over and caught her dress on the handle, she patiently freed herself, turned the wagon upright and put all of the spilled items back in.
I was so proud of her diligence!  Even still, I watch for signs of frustration and then cheerfully bend down to help her if she's unable to get the wagon where she's trying to go or clean-up is getting tedious.  

I also make sure to help her to be diligent about emptying the articles of trash into the garbage can we have in our outdoor room, setting items on the table and then bringing her wagon full of toys all the way into the house.  This entire chore takes my assistance every step of the way, but it's only a matter of time before she'll be able to do it all by herself and we'll only have to watch to make sure she doesn't throw away any tools!

Last, but not least, there's the age-old farmer child chore.  It's also Gracey's favorite.  She's an animal lover and you should have seen her face light up the first time I suggested she crawl into the little hut that currently houses our twelve chickens and a rabbit.  She made herself right at home, snuggling next to the bunny, petting everything that would let her and chattering sweetly.  So I taught her to look in the hens' nests for eggs - saves me crawling half way in!  She loves to do this and while I can't yet stay in the kitchen while she skips out to gather breakfast, it's only a matter of time.  For now, I'm content to let my baby sister have the thrill of hunting for treasures in the hay and presenting them to me at the door of the roost.  And she's content just to spend time with the animals.  Win-win.

"Sissy, look! Egg!"

Caution: As proud as I am of her, I do have to admit that she is still only a year old.  We had to watch her very closely with the eggs because she still doesn't understand that it's not just an oddly-shaped ball.  This morning I heard, "one... two..." and I realized just in time that she was about to throw the egg to me on "three".  We are in the process of patiently teaching her to be very gentle and to hand them to us.  

There you have it!  Five homesteading chores that my one year old sister does every morning that I take her to the garden.  

I am confident that this chore routine will bear much fruit: not only in helping to train Gracey to be a big help to our homesteading endeavors in the future, but also in opportunities to help build Gracey's work ethic, to practice child training techniques while I'm in "mommy-college", and to cultivate a beautiful and mutually edifying relationship with my baby sister.

See?  Toddlers and gardening do mix!

What homesteading chores do

you have your toddler do?

Linkin' up to...

...and...

Homemaking Wednesdays @ Raising Homemakers

Domestically Divine Tuesdays @ Above Rubies