Summertime gives us the opportunity to work on a few practical skills. These are things that hopefully get our girls to be a bit more independent and take care of the house with us, instead of household chores being a constant battle.

First, our kids get allowance for doing chores. They also do some chores just becaue they live here and it's part of being a family. They understand which chores need to be completed for money and that incomplete or poorly done chores result in a lower amount of money in their allowance. We also insist that part of the allowance be put in their savings account. To be honest, they are both really good at taking care of their chores and it is very rare that I need to take part of their allowance away for not completing their work. We are working on saving the other portion of allowance for things they want to buy themselves. J knows that her spending money is used to go to movies, small shopping trips, the school book orders, and entrance to school dances. Both girls save money to buy Christmas presents for the family. This system has saved me countless headaches and coming up with last minute cash. I highly recommend it. We hope to be able to gradually increase allowance as they age. Ultimately, by the time they are seniors in high school, I'd like them to have to save for their clothes and pay for their own dance lessons. We'll see how that works out. If you're interested in finding out more, I recommend Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace Jr.", a kit which contains items to help kids understand how money works, prepare to save, etc. You can find it at www.daveramsey.com. While I don't follow his system to the letter, most of what I mentioned here is in his system. I admit, I'm a big fan of him and his ideas, and have read his "The Total Money Makeover" book, which I highly recommend for adults. It's the only personal finance book I've ever read cover to cover AND understood AND put into action.

Other skills--K learned to work the TV remote control. This doesn't sound like much, but consider how complicated those things are now! Plus, we have separate remotes for the TV and the satellite box, so there is some sophistication needed to understand this system. She's handled it well and now does not have to get me out of bed in the mornings for this. I've also had her start getting her own breakfast on the weekends, so that I can sleep in. It's just cereal and milk (I put the milk in a creamer pitcher so it's easier for her to pour) but it gets me a few extra minutes of sleep--a real sanity saver, in my life.

J learned to iron and how to hand wash a car. I taught her to iron since she already does a load of her own laundry as part of her regular chores. This just seemed like the next logical step! She now can iron her own things weekly as needed. We all washed my car as a family. J actually said that she could take that item off her bucket list!!! Clearly, we need to get this child out more!!! I think it helped that it was so hot we didn't mind when my husband 'accidentally' squirted us all with the hose!

Sometimes I think parents love their children so much that they want to do everything for them. Really, if we want our kids to be great adults, we need to let them do things for themselves, in a gradual and age-appropriate way. Don't be afraid to let them do things around the house and learn to function without your constant supervision. You'll be glad you did!