The Egg Peddler

Having this chicken coop has provided us with some fun laughs and great family time. It also is a great way to give little ones a chore or responsibility. JoJo's chore is to gather up the eggs, wash them off, and put them in the refrigerator. Here she is at the nesting boxes that are outside of the coop (facing inward so the chickens can lay, obviously). JoJo pulls down the door and checks each box for eggs.

By about 2:30 in the afternoon, all the chickens are done laying for the day. Regardless if she is busy or has friends over, she goes out and checks that coop. This has also been a great tool for Jeepers. He'll go out with his sister and learn how to count the eggs (he's great at counting to 8 because that's how many we usually get). It's also a wonderful lesson for him in being gentle-which is great for a 2 year old boy that destroys everything in his path!

Then, JoJo takes the eggs into the bathroom and very carefully washes them and inspects each one- noticing which are speckled, which are bigger, which are very light in color, etc. She gives me a report on all the eggs as I help her put them in the fridge.

And now here comes her reward...We eat the eggs, we even give some away, but about twice a month we find ourselves with a surplus of eggs (about 3 dozen). JoJo and I carefully load up her basket full of eggs and she becomes- The Egg Peddler!

I help her go door to door selling eggs to the neighborhood. She is learning so much by this! Manners, confidence, MATH! I'm also able to teach her about paying tithing (10% gets paid to the church) and she is learning how much things cost and how to save money for something she wants. We went to a farm yesterday and she wanted a pony ride. I told her that would cost 25 eggs! She gave me a face like- "that is not worth it!"

Knock, Knock- Who's there- Um, the cutest girl in America selling fresh chicken eggs...

How could you say no to that face?