Make a child a sandwich feed them for a day. Teach the child to make their own sandwich feed them for a lifetime.

Well it's a new year and that means a new chore list. Liam has moved up in his responsibilities, the dishes. So far he hasn't complained and finds it quite satisfying when he makes it nice and clean again. The hot water he doesn't fancy but the bubbles makes up for the burn. I say keep up the great attitude. This means Hyrum has officially taken over Liam's dishwasher duty. He acted all upset about having to unload the dishwasher the first time around but was having almost too much fun unloading it. He was quite proud of his accomplishment. I was too.

I enjoy working with the boys introducing new chores. One, it's one less chore I have to do! Two, it gives me an opportunity to be with them and teach them a new skill. It's very fulfilling.

Speaking of skills, I wasn't recently at the doctor's office and read this great idea for skill badges. It's where I stole the title of the post. It was in Disney's Family Fun magazine. I've tried to find it on their website but since I'm not a subscriber I can't get back to the article.

The purpose is to teach your kids skills and independence. I've slowly been coming up with my own ideas for badges and hope to start using it at our house. My little twist is it will be outside of their everyday chores and things they that can help them earn money. Our boys are getting older and want more expensive things. It's time we start doing a little money management. I figured why not kill two birds with one stone?

I'm excited about adding this to our routine of life and hope that it will give me more opportunities to teach my kids independence and skills they will carry with them forever.