Children and Chores

It has taken me almost seven years to come up with a chore system that works for me and my children.  I spent many hours creating fun chore charts with games, rewards, pictures, bright colors and anything else you can think of.  You know what finally worked?

 

Simplify

 

That one word seems to work with most things in life.

 

I found a simple magnetic chore chart one day while I was shopping at Target for a little under $10.  It came with all sorts of magnets to mark rewards and keep track of chores. 

 I threw those away.

 

 Then I added some extra lines using a wet dry erase marker, which can't be wiped off unless it gets wet, to divide up chores between my two kids and assigned them a color.  All chores written in blue are my son's chores and in green are my daughter's chores.

 

 

 Now here's the other trick.  They DO NOT get paid or receive any type of reward to do their chores.  I believe every person in the family should work together to maintain a household.

 

We sat down and had a family discussion about everything Mommy has to do to keep the house clean and running smoothly.  Then I asked them what they would like to be in charge of and they picked their own chores.  Sometimes they switch with each other, but they know what they are in charge of every day.

 

No video games, TV or outside play until their chores are done.  Some days they choose not to do their chores because they don't want to put in the work to have fun.  That's fine.  We do that as adults.  But it's quite funny the next day when they have to do more because their chores have piled up!  Good life lessons.

 

Once I set it all up, the system ran without me.  I do check every once in awhile to make sure they did their chores and occasionally I need to reshow them how to do one of them. 

 

 

We've been using this system for almost a year and it works great!  Much less work for me to do and the kids are learning responsibility.

 

I did a quick search and here is a site that lists age appropriate chores.  And if they can't read, draw a picture!  I'm not the best artist, but my four year old knew which chore to associate with each picture.

 

Happy Thursday!

 

 

Vanessa