chore charts

hello! two posts in one week! it's sure to snow. although, with temperatures in the teens and wind chills below zero, a little snow would make the cold worthwhile.

you know i'm not one to usually share the insides of my closets or cabinets, nor the complete workings of my family. these past two posts have been a little odd for me. however, here is another thing that we've found works, and some have asked about it.

with a lively family of four boys, we find that sharing chore responsibilities not only proves the adage "many hands make light work", but also helps instill good work habits in the boys themselves. we have shared the chores for years now..within age appropriateness. the only problem, if you will, is that each time i handed out assignments, the boys would sometimes say things like, "i did that last time", or "i was hoping to do ___". it wasn't complaining per say. i just couldn't keep track of who had done what on a week to week basis.

enter a new system.

 (no, they do not really say "child's name". i took out my boy's names and just showed you where they go.)

after scouring the internet for some ideas on chore charts, i ended up marrying a few ideas, ending up with this simple system that has worked beautifully for 6 months now.

i first made a list of the chores that we have in our home.. vacuum, swiffer, dust, bathrooms (believe it or not, one of my boys would love to be assigned bathrooms every time), windows and laundry are the ones that are done most often. the "extras" are changing bed linen, cleaning off stairs (are we the only ones who end up collecting stuff there??), wiping down the kitchen... i also saw, and liked, the idea of showing a special act of love and writing thank you notes.. so those are included as well. there is a special one for our dog, Daisy, whom the boys take turns taking care of each day.  they move that magnet themselves each morning.

i then drew pictures for each chore, and had a little fun coloring and punching them out with a circle punch. the final step was modge podging the pictures behind a clear florist glass (they're marble-like, but flat on one side), and attaching a round magnet.

the charts have two sides for each boy.. a to-do side, and a done side. when it's time to clean up, i put the assigned tasks on their to-do sides, they check it and go to work. and they do move the magnet to the done side, with quite a level of satisfaction, when they complete a task. the recently assigned chores are all on the done side in the pictures, where they will stay until the next time i assign them. that tells me who did what the last time, allowing me to change it up.

 the metal surface itself is two dollar tree cookie sheets. you could cover them with decorative paper and fancy them up. or, you could be in a "get in done as fast as possible mode", like i was, and use a paint marker to write your children's names and draw imperfect lines. either way, find what works for your family and go for it! :)

i'm off to stoke the fire and drink some hot chocolate!