To read from the beginning of this series start with Do You Have Your Child’s Heart? or simply read “How Do You Find the Time?” Part 1 and Part 2.
Another way to find quality and quantity time for your children is by including them in your daily life and tasks. Work with your children, play with your children, go to the store with your children, tackle projects with your children.
Nearly every project or task that I do around the house I have a child helper (or three). From starting and folding laundry, working in the kitchen or cleaning up a room the children love to be paired with mom to work. (Since we have 9 children, I don’t usually have ALL of the children helping me on a single task, but choose a few to help with each thing.) Not only does working together allow us to develop deeper relationships and provide extra time to talk, it is a perfect opportunity to train and teach the children to be helpful or give them the opportunity to actually be helpful. Grocery shopping, doctor visits and running errands are other special times to spend with the children. (I posted about going out with lots of small children and ideas to entertain and enjoy your children while you’re waiting.)
Think about what you do each day and consider ways that you can include your children. Janet wrote an excellent, practical post about how to improve the quality and quantity time with your children. She makes a great point about evaluating how much time you are actually engaged with your children (you may be surprised) and then shares many ideas about how to increase and improve it.
You may be interested some tips for minimizing laundry, how we save money by getting and using free paper for all of the children’s artwork or reading about the unique environment where God placed our family that helped shape us into what we are today.
Other posts in “Your Child’s Heart” series:
- Your Child’s Heart?
- How Can You Tell if You Have Your Child’s Heart?
- What’s Your Responsibility (Discipline)
- What’s Your Responsibility (Instruction)
- It Requires Time
- Our Insufficiency
- The Pearl’s and Your Child’s Heart
- How do You Find the Time? Part 1
- How do You Find the Time? Part 2
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I agree! And it doesn’t stop with little ones. I grab one of our teenagers when I go to the store and it turns out to be a time alone for the 2 or 3 of us. I loved being with my mom while she worked at home – I assume my kids do too.
Great advice. So simple we can miss it!
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Kimberly @ Raising Olives Reply:
April 28th, 2010 at 7:08 am
Yes, I’ve found that one of the best ways to get one of my older kids to really open up and talk is to tackle a project with her.
I also enjoy that special alone time when out with one or two of the kids.
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I agree – especially is some of our recent struggles with our preteen – taking him out for errands or getting him to help in the kitchen seem to be the best ways to get his attitude to leave the room! Lol
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Some of the best moments with my children are when we are engaged in a simple task together. I get to spend precious time with my children over a hot soapy sink of dishes and it’s priceless.
I recently implemented a new laundry system in my house where each child has a basket. I was able to teach my 8 year old how to fold his own clothes, put them away in the proper drawers and where to place the basket when he was through. While doing this, I told him of the time when my mom taught me how to help with laundry and how I was responsible for certain things around the home. He and I were able to share that time together and it was sweet. Not only did he learn a new task that would help me out around the house, but he was also learning how to serve someone.
Now that we have a new baby, he is all the more eager to help with other things such as clearning the dinner table and doing dishes.
Thank you for sharing your heart in these series, Kim. I enjoy getting to read them!
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