Chores
I decided that we needed a new chore chart with a new focus with our new school year. Last school year, I concentrated on the children having a good attitude while doing chores. We have a motto that we expect our children to follow: We want them to be respectful, responsible, fun to be with and to do things fast and snappy, right the first time and the adult's way. Some of these areas are challenging for our little ones and doing chores fast and snappy with a happy heart took a lot of time to train in (and still is not perfect). For this reason, we did not do a lot of chores last year. However, the children have improved a great deal, and I feel that we can now focus on doing chores to keep a clean, well-organized house. As we de-clutter, I am always telling the children that everything you own must be respected/maintained and that we want to have time/freedom to do other things and not maintain our belongings all of the time. Until last week, the kids did a morning chore and a 15 minute sweep with me in the afternoon. Now I am having them do a great deal more. We do not pay our children for chores. We feel that doing chores is simply part of being in a family. A family pulls together and does what needs to be done. We do give an allowance so that the kids will learn how to handle money. I will speak about that another day. Below is our new chore chart. So far, the kids are responding very well. Of course, there has been a bit of grumbling, but not as much as I expected. One of the first comments I heard was "Where is Dad's name?". That child was reminded that Dad was at work right then and goes to work 5 days a week, as well as handling all of the yard work. He also helps, when help is needed, inside the house.
The room concentration column explains the room on any given day that we will clean from top to bottom. The night time sweep column is meant to keep the rooms on the level during the week. I've discovered that the bedrooms need more than 5 minutes at night. I have a feeling cleaning them up tomorrow is going to be a big undertaking. Hopefully, as the weeks wear on, the kids will do a better job of putting things away when they are done playing with them. Hmmm...I think we've been working on putting things away when you are done since they could walk! I might have ambitious ideas. Following this chore chart will not keep the home perfect, but it will keep things running smoother and we will be ready for guests at any moment. Blessings, Dawn
I like the idea of sweeps. I'm considering making that our "before-school-starts" chore for everyone.
ReplyDeleteLove your chore chart!! We used to have a pretty good one, but got away from it when we left Japan and lived in the camper. Let's face it, there's not alot to do in a camper.
ReplyDeleteNow that we're finally settled in our house, we'll be starting them. I plan on working on the list this week and implementing it when I get home from the hospital next week. I know they will all have to pitch in next week while I'm gone and help out daddy alot, and I don't want to overwhelm dad with having to get them to do chores. It will be challenging enough for him trying to go back and forth to the hospital, take care of house and kids, do laundry, run kids around, and make meals. Everyday for us, but he's been gone most of the last six years, so this proves to be a little challenging.
Have a wonderful week!
Blessings,
Michelle
Oh Dawn does this just come natural for you ie are you gifted organization wise or is it something you have to work at? I ask that because it seems everytime I start anything like this it goes well for a week or two but with the busyness of life it eventually falls by the wayside.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the chores and allowance issue.
Have a wonderfully blessed weekend, Julie
I love this: 'We do not pay our children for chores. We feel that doing chores is simply part of being in a family. A family pulls together and does what needs to be done. We do give an allowance so that the kids will learn how to handle money...' We feel exactly the same way around here. I also see parents who give financial rewards for grades--another no-no in our books.
ReplyDeleteResponding to several of your posts at once, the party pictures are terrific. You reminded me that we tore down our old rusty swing set this summer, and the pool we promised the youngest has yet to materialize. Maybe we'll get a new swing set in the fall.
I'm still putting together a plan (and maybe a Squidoo lesson?) on Ancient China. I'm hoping we're blessed with enough wind to fly kites--it might mean a trip to the beach (bummer, huh?) :-)
Belinda (who's too lazy to sign in)
www.homeschoolblogger.com/bbullard
and I love the Leappad reading idea. Our older children enjoyed those at a younger age, and the youngest is loving the new Leappad Tag Reader.
The chore chart looks great!
ReplyDeleteVery well set-up and makes sense, too.
I am working on attitudes with my 5 and 3 yr old. We've been doing "yes m'am" training and trying to learn to clean up with happy hearts. It's a lot of work!
You're going to have such good workers and they will be well-equipped to tackle life on their own someday.
Tracy
I like this-thank you for sharing. And Amen for making kids have a good attitude that is so important (although we are far from perfecting it's something to always be working on).
ReplyDeleteI have a schedule like this for our hs time but not for chores. It would help us all if I did on for chores. mmm...something to work on.
-Dusti
http://www.kimmelkids4.blogspot.com/
Looks like a great system. I appreciate your focus on attitude. I should probably do more of that. We've been focusing on morning chores and we'll work up from there. I enjoyed seeing your chart. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteBlessings
Leslie