I have had quite a few people lately ask me about the chore system that I use with my kids and in our house. I actually hesitate posting things like this because I know that after going through a post such as what I am going to write, there are many mom's out there who will think things like...
"They are so amazing! I wish I could teach my kids that!" or...
"She is such a great mom, it looks so nice." or...
"There is no way that I could do something like this." or...
ANY OTHER comparing thoughts. So, before I get into this, I want to give a few disclaimers:
1. There are days that are really good when we do chores. The kids smile and they work hard.
2. There are MORE days that are really hard and after a few minutes I have to just tell them we are going to have to wait until tomorrow to finish because I don't have the patience to see it through.
3. There are smiles... and there are complaints from my kids...but I AM SEEING the fruits of doing this with them. Which I will write later.
4. There are days I don't follow this schedule perfectly because... well, as you know, many days don't go according to plan... and that is okay. I just breathe deep and try again tomorrow when that happens.
5. I LOVE this system. Love it.
So PLEASE don't compare. I promise my kids aren't 100% bright-eyed and bushy-tailed while we do stuff like this. It takes a lot of patience for me to do this with them, so it is self-mastery work for me as well!
Okay, without further ado, here is the system. I will use pictures to go through it.
ONE: I printed out a bunch of words and pictures with various chores on them to make "chore cards".
NO, I did not make these, I googled "chore charts" and found one online I liked and printed it (there are a lot out there, so you can find one that works for you). I made one copy for each child. Then I had them color them and we laminated them together. So the kids were very involved in the process.
TWO: We use these cards to decide on the chores we will do for the day... (and to be honest we will do this system 2-3 times a week, so we don't do this everyday. Our schedule is usually Monday, Thursday and Saturday).
We have quite a few cards (as you can see in my hands).Most of the time we will choose between 3-6 chore cards depending on how motivated I am to follow through and teach!
THREE: We will lay out the cards on the table first so the kids can see what we are going to do. They help me choose them. THEN, each chore will get either a nickel, dime or a quarter put above the card, the amount I will choose depending on how big the chore is. We will put the money above the card after we line out the chores on the table. I decided to have three jars the money goes into. Tithing/Charity (10%), Savings (20%) and Fun (70%).
FOURTH: After lining everything out on the table, then we will do one chore at a time. I always put music on as well. As soon as the chore is finished I will have the kids run back to the table and put the money into the jar decided for that chore. Then they will take the card and put it in their envelope that I have on the wall. So we can immediately see which chores are done and which ones are left.
FIFTH: Then we repeat that until the chores are complete! I have been doing this system with the kids for about a year. They aren't tired of it yet! Here are some pictures of doing chores.
I totally focus on teaching them how to clean the best. I am pretty picky about making sure they know how to do it right. They can do all these chores on their own now without me having to tell them how to do the little details. That took AWHILE to get to this point, but now that we are here, I love it!
WHAT THEIR MONEY IS FOR: They use their "fun" money jar for various things. Whenever we are at the store or running errands and they ask for candy, a little toy, or something fun, I just always get to say, "Well, we have to look in your fun jar and see if you have earned enough money to buy it." That is my automatic response whenever they ask for anything. They have already bought many things with their own money that they have earned.
It is SO NICE to use this response with them! We have already had a lot of conversations about "their money they have earned because of working" and where it goes. We have talked about their tithing/charity jar and savings jars as well and what they are for.
So... there you have it! Our chore system. So far it is working great and I foresee it will work well until my kids are probably about seven or eight years old.
I know as the kids get older we are going to need to adjust how we do chores, and what they will get paid for (I am NOT going to pay my kids for all the little chores they should do around the house as they get older. I will change it to be more complicated chores like cleaning the garage and stuff).
But, for now, it is working beautifully!
