Using homeschooled kids as nursery workers.

Many people who run nurseries discover that they all have a similar dilemma.  It's a lot of menial labor.  Simple motions repeated over and over, often out in the hot sun.  So what's a busy nursery owner's main lament?  They can't find reliable seasonal help.  Even when a fair wage is offered, most people don't want to work.  And they especially don't want to work hard.  Teenagers and college students do not have the same work ethics that their parents had growing up.  They work slowly, they use their cellphones to text frequently, and they often just don't come back after day one.  So what to do?  My answer:

Do you know any homeschooling children? While I would hate to stereotype, most of the children we know that homeschool have excellent work ethics, especially if they come from a larger than average sized family.  Such children are usually expected to take responsibility for more jobs and chores than other children might be.  If you phrase your offer in the form of "a paid internship in the nursery business" you will likely get many interested parents who will at least consider it.  If at all possible try to get 2 siblings at the same time.  Better accountability for everyone should something go south.   You might even get the homeschool Mom as one of your employees if she's looking for stay-at-home business training, which almost all stay at home moms ARE.  I brainstormed a list of stay at home occupations here, one day when I just felt like making a list.

I know this may not be much help, but with my large family of homeschool kids I have lots of helpers. I have 4 teenagers,  3 pre-teens, and 3 preschoolers.  They are hard workers and generally we aim to have a good time while we work.  Some jobs are just hard sweaty jobs that are no fun, but if at all possible we try to keep it fun.  We play the radio while sticking cuttings.  Sometimes work in an air conditioned room in the barn.  Drink soda pop (not typically allowed) and never assign someone to work alone.  They always have a "buddy" of some kind to chat with or fetch things.  The preschoolers love pulling the wagon for us, bringing cold drinks, and being messengers.  My husband or I almost always work alongside them or nearby when we do.  We have planned stopping points so they have short-term goals to aim for (3 more trays and then we'll go inside and cool off for a bit).  Many times the ending prize of the day is swimming pool time.  Those who stayed inside and didn't work as hard do not get to go.  Often my husband and/or I will get in with them (hey, we're hot and sweaty too!). 

We do not allow cell phones or ipods while working unless there is a special request.  My weed-whacking daughter is allowed to listen to her music while she works on the weeds.  She does about 3 hours of weed whacking for me each Monday.  OH, on that topic, we have a Ryobi battery-powered weed-whacker that I just love!  We have about 6 lithium rechargeable batteries for it (as well as a slew of other Ryobi power tools).  It only runs for about 15 minutes per battery with constant use, but the effort to use it is WAY less than those gas-powered ones.  I was never able to handle the vibrations and the weight of the gas-powered ones, but this one is great for little ole me.  Yes, I do product recommendations too.  Here's my review of the Ryobi weed eater.

My kids are given 20 minutes of free-time on the computer everyday, they also have one chance per day to request a 20 minute chore/job which will earn them an extra 20 minutes on the computer.   This is where I use them for boring maintenace jobs like: rearranging trays and pots, pre-filling trays with potting mix, pulling weeds and such, as well as many indoor jobs. On other days, like a full work day on Saturday my husband might tell the kids "If we get all the things done on this list by such-and-such time then I will take everyone out to Taco Bell for dinner."

Another thing I've done is that I made some little FLAGS out of shishkebab skewers and folded over duct tape.  Mine are made with white duct tape and have black X's written in the center of the flag with a nursery marker.  I will go out into the nursery and stick the flags into the pots or trays that need attention, so that later they can go out and do "flag jobs" for me.  This is assuming that you've already trained them in HOW you want such jobs to be done.  It's also imperative to you go inspect their completed work as soon possible after it's done and give them feedback ASAP as well.  For example: "You did a good job moving the hoses and reconnecting them, but when you put those one galllon pots away you didn't stack any of them.  Go back and stack them this time."

Well, maybe this won't help as many of you as I had hoped.  Perhaps it will at least apply to those of you who have children or grandchildren near by?