SIX AREAS WHERE PARENTS CAN TREAT CHILDREN AS PERSONS : PART 1 ~ A CHILD'S WORK SHOULD SHOW THEIR OWN PERSONAL INITIATIVE.

                                 Image - powerofmoms.com
"There is so much task-work to be done, so many things that must be done, not learned, but learned about, that it is only now and then a child gets the chance to produce himself in his work."
"The children's thought was stimulated, and they felt they had it in them to say much about...whatever...subject struck their fancy. 'They felt their feet,' as..(people)..say of children when they begin to walk;"
SCHOOL EDUCATION: Charlotte Mason p. 37.
This series is attempting to discuss six areas where parents, can treat children as 'persons'.
This, the first post, is in the area of WORK - home jobs or responsibilities, or school work.
The quotes above are from Charlotte Mason who wrote over a hundred years ago. The point she makes is as true today as it ever was. 
Some parents want their child to do a job in just the same way as they do it. Why? Because they consider their way is right, or the best, or the quickest. Maybe their parent straight-jacketed them to copy their method of doing the job, many years earlier. Or possibly they found their method after many tries and failures to get the task done. The second approach is what children need today - experiences to let their humour, their artisticness, or their need of haste, or precision... come to the fore. That way the job gets done by them using their own personal initiative. 
If parents persist with an attitude to children that they need to be told, directed, instructed in how to do things, they rob their children, because they ignore the fact that each child has a mind with it's unique qualities and perspectives on approaching things. 
The second quote above describes what happens when a child is allowed to use their personal initiative in their work. The child is encouraged, stimulated, they gain confidence which pours over into other areas of life. They view the work as fun or enjoyable. Children now see themselves as capable because they have found things for themselves or 'felt their feet'. This is what growing up or maturing is all about.
Any artistic work a child or adult is involved in requires total person initiative ~ so ~
THISWEEKWITHTHEKIDS ~ ask your child to do a job which they are capable to do but have never done before. Let them handle it as  they wish. Give no guidelines unless they ask you a question. 
Cathy