<p>Looking for ideas to help out around the house besides lawn mowing for my college kids at home this summer. They do have outside jobs, but only for half the summer. The other half will be the usual vampire scenario (go to bed at 3:00 a.m., wake up at 3:00 p.m.) if I can’t figure out stuff for them to do around the house.</p>
<p>Dusting? Laundry? Gardening? All ideas are welcome.</p>
<p>We had our kids cook. They had to plan, shop for, prepare, and clean up a family meal for four that included a protein, veggie, and carb (cooked from scratch) for $20. We paid the cost of food. The two boys competed with each other on finding good recipies and both learned to become fabulous cooks. It worked out to about $10/hour.</p>
<p>In addition to mowing (and sometimes watering), our son has been responsible for emptying the dishwasher and putting out the recycling and garbage. Also sometimes vacuuming. He has had a local internship and worked 5 days a week during most of the last 3 summers. I do have to warn you that no amount of chores (or jobs) could prevent the night owl syndrome! Just meant he got about 5 hours of sleep during the week - made up for it on weekends!</p>
<p>How about painting woodwork or at least taping if that needs to be done. Mulching is a great heavy job.</p>
<p>Start a little business offering dog walking/feeding, watering plants, skimming pools, collecting mail for neighbors and friends away on vacation</p>
<p>I have digital photos going back to 2003. I plan to make my kids organize the digital images and load the best from each year on the shutterfly account. There they will “build” and order a different paper bound album book for each year. </p>
<p>I love shooting digital but really miss the ease of flipping through a book album on the couch. I can’t wait for this summer project to be complete. :)</p>
<p>How about running errands? Kids can pick up and drop off laundry (dad’s shirts), grocery shop, take thing to the P.O., put gas in the cars, pick up prescriptions, etc.
Or if you’re really “mean,” like me, do the errands but make them go with you to help. :)</p>
<p>Washing and detailing the family cars is a fairly fun chore for guys.</p>
<p>And there’s always picking up after the dog in the backyard…</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Update the extended family address book (emails, snail mails, telephone numbers). As needed, phone out to great-aunt-aunt-J to confirm and don’t shake her off the phone, either.</p></li>
<li><p>Sell lemonade, no wait…too old.</p></li>
<li><p>Require he do regular volunteer hours, on behalf of your family, at food bank, hospital or another charity/institutiion in town you both deem worthwhile. It will develop in him the habit of giving back service hours to the community, as a professional working person post-college and long after. </p></li>
<li><p>My kids enjoy troubleshooting, defragging and shortcutting to help my computer stay more up-to-date. I’m not good at it; they are.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>car maintenance…wash/vacuum them, change the oil (if possible) or take repsonsibility for getting them back and forth to the dealership for any routine maintenance. </p>
<p>Watering plants… if you have a lot of outdoor plantings (like us) that wilt in hot summer heat and need regular irrigation.</p>
<p>Washing the dog, if you have one (always a dreaded job here). </p>
<p>Powerwash the deck/driveway/sidewalk at your house (always see a neighbor’s college S doing it at their house)</p>
<p>Wash their own clothes</p>
<p>Transferring the old home movies to dvd</p>
<p>Washing windows.</p>
<p>Cleaning out closets (particularly theirs) and taking stuff to Goodwill.</p>
<p>Taking grandparents to doctor’s appointments.</p>
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<p>LOL. I love that. We may be in the same boat. I have decided that if 17yo S cannot find a job this summer that for at least part of the summer he will be watching his 10yo sister. To be truthful, it isn’t a chore, they enjoy each others company, for limited periods of time. They would both be able to sleep late, play video games and do something outside (my mandate, otherwise they would never leave the house) Younger sis will like not having to go to camp for a full 8 weeks. </p>
<p>I second the organizing of stuff we never get to, like pictures, old clothes, etc. Last summer S did mandatory volunteer work for jr year. Got it all done before school started.</p>
<p>Help a neighbor in need (yard work, helping organize their garage…)</p>
<p>Organize a neighborhood collection for the food bank.</p>
<p>Write a how-to manual for the parents (to use once the kids go back to school): how to defrag your computer, how to hook up a laptop to the tv so you can watch internet videos, how to use an ipod…</p>
<p>Organize “dinner and a movie night” for friends and family. One idea…a movie set in a foreign country, and a meal from that country. </p>
<p>Plant a garden and take care of it.</p>
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<p>HA! I love it!</p>
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<p>With my luck, they’d spike it. ;)</p>
<p>Great suggestions, thanks. Please add if you think of more, I’m taking them all in.</p>
<p>We’re going to have DS#1 -
<p>I like DougBetsy’s idea of a photo book. I have print and digital copies of all my photos (going back to 1992), and I have made scrapbooks for years. But I’m going to have DS#1 go through the photos and pick out the ones he likes and make a photo book to take to school with him.</p>
<p>DS#2 will be doing some of these (laundry, help with pool/pond, cooking, lawn, etc), but he will also be busy with a summer class, golf camp, and practicing non-stop in the hopes of making Varsity.</p>
<p>Wash windows.</p>
<p>Clean out the garage and organize.</p>
<p>Clean & organize kitchen cupboards / pantry.</p>
<p>Digitize recipes.</p>
<p>I make him work 10 hrs. per week at my office for spending money during school year.</p>
<p>Our house has a lot of painted woodwork, and getting it really washed takes some doing. </p>
<p>D&I also share one summer project each year: we choose a room and paint it. She loves picking out paint samples and making sample boards to check the colors out in larger settings – we both have veto power over the colors, and so far I’m really happy with three rooms we’ve done. She’s now quite competent at prepping and painting everything except double-hung windows. I figure that knowing how to paint is one of those useful life-skills.</p>
<p>She’s also my official loader of CDs into iTunes, something I seem to not have the patience to do.</p>
<p>I like the digitize recipes idea, especially as she’s asked for a cookbook of recipes I make that she likes.</p>
<p>Bookmark!.</p>
<p>Gosh, you folks are way ahead of me. I’m happy, though. Couple of days ago my son called me (on the phone, a rare occasion) and I told him what I figured would be the immediate plan when he got home: Sleep for about two weeks. He said, No, sleep for a couple of days and then clean the house. W:eek:W! 
I’m ready to have him come home!</p>
<p>Wow! I’ll pay if you want to send him my way afterwards! I’ll pay more if he can get my teen to help!</p>