Doesn't sound to me like you're asking too much. Ours are girl-9, boy-7, girl-4, and girl-2. The 9 & 7 year olds are in charge of the vacuuming and bathrooms; they take turns by the month. I help our son on the bathrooms when it's his month. :-D He mows the lawn, too. The 4 year old empties the dishwasher most days and helps out with vacuuming because she loves it. They all help with picking up and putting away, hanging/folding laundry, and setting the table. Our 9 year old keeps us in home-made bread and is just starting to teach her brother. She's learning to bake pies, too. Our son is always begging to "make something", so often helps us make a cake or other dessert. They have their homeschool responsibilities, too, but they get loads of time to play and read. I sometimes think they have too much playtime, but after reading the other responses here, maybe not. :-D As for getting them to work quickly, I think that's just the way it goes. We've started instituting an evening clean-up right before supper and that's when they do their jobs. Seems like it usually goes pretty fast as we're almost ready to eat. Then we have the evening and next morning to enjoy a fairly neat house. They can do so much more than we think sometimes, and they are happiest if they are contributing something useful to the family!


--the farmer's wife