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!
