Part one of my strategy involves chores. I pulled out the post-its this morning and started the lists. It's how we do things. Their lists are portable, sticky, always changing and when we happen to be out of the house for the morning, they are easy to skip. I have tried chore charts in the past, but its hard for me to be consistent. My kids love the variety of a daily, ever-changing list they can check off and I like the flexibility.
The challenge can be figuring out what to put on their lists each day.
We have a few standards: make bed/pick-up clothes and say memory verse are daily. A few school activities (we rotate between math workbooks, writing, and reading) are always included. And at least one, sometimes two "chores" complete the daily post-it note.
The "chores" part has me racking my brain at times. I have my master list, which helps, but I am always looking for new ideas.
Here are a few things my kids will be doing this summer, I'd love to hear your "chore" ideas in the comments.
Big Kids (ages 7-10)
- Vacuuming rooms
- Cleaning bathrooms (I sometimes separate this into just the tub, or sinks and toilets)
- Dusting
- Pulling Weeds
- Sweeping off front/back porches
- Cleaning windows on the front/back doors
- Cleaning/sweeping out the van
- Sweeping out the garage
- Emptying dishwasher
Little Kids (ages 4-5)
- Wiping down baseboards
- Dusting stair rails
- Picking up
- Watering plants
- Sweeping off front/back porches
- Vacuuming rooms
- Dusting
My expectations on the quality of work is lower for the "littles," and often involves "training" but they have to start somewhere and often surprise me at how well they do.
Post-it note chore lists work for me and at our house indicate summer is here!
3 comments:
On the topic of chores, but a little off the focus of your post: The absolutely best things I did my my children was "Room Check", every night and every morning. Each child had ONE room (plus their bedroom) that they would check when I said "Room Check" before bed. This would include picking up toys, throwing away newspapers, picking up stray socks, closing the blinds, folding a couch blanket, picking up bathroom towels, putting away toothbrushes, just making sure the room is all picked up. In the morning, they were responsible for opening the blinds in that same room. It is just a simple way to routinely keep the house picked up. My room for Room Check was always the kitchen--the hardest room. Brad always said the idea was revolutionary because he could just say "Room Check" and everyone pitched in.
Cindy, that is a GREAT idea!! Thanks for sharing!
Love the "room check" idea too. We have a toy round-up before bed, but this idea seems even better.
A few ideas that were not mentioned:
Set/clear the table at meal times
Empty bathroom trash cans and insert new "liners"
Bring kids' laundry basket to laundry room on wash day
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