Gas masks & chores?
It's hard to believe it has been almost 2 years since my original posting of Chores: Finding a Solution that Works!
This is the 'original' chore board where chores are layered on top of each other in terms of morning, afternoon and evening with a 'reward' sticker chart of completed days. (Please see original article for more information)
Original Chore Cards
Since that time we've had two 'morphs' of our household procedures.The first one came after they got the hang of how to handle mornings: get dressed, make bed, brush teeth, eat....etc, etc. About the time when their morning routine became ingrained our schedule changed and became well, more routine!
First 'morph' of chore cards
We didn't need many of the extra cards that changed from day to day. Instead of piling the cards on top of each other, I made a large 'main card' that had each days' basics on it and then added the changeable activities on top of that card. (Changeable cards = Homeschool PE, Outing/Field Trip, Missionettes/Royal Rangers, Church)Presently, my kids have their routines down (YIPEE!!!!!) and they no longer need the visual reminder of the sticker reward chart to know that they've completed the days' work. Now we spend time learning how to deep clean each area during our Daily Room Rescues. For those of you who do not know what that is, we assign a room to be cleaned for each day of the week. For that day, that particular room will be cleaned. (Monday is the kitchen, Tuesday is the living room ,etc, etc).
Rather than making a list of areas that need attention in a particular room everyday, I made up cards with the task on them. The tasks that need to be done are hung on the hooks spread out so they can plainly be seen. This way, as each child is ready to help with cleaning, they can easily see what needs to be done, take a card, do it, and then return the card to the 'finished hook'. Using this method everyone knows exactly what is expected and all can see what is left to do.....AND, I included a card for parental INSPECTION.
Now there's no more arguing or complaining! The kids know exactly what's expected and the room isn't officially 'clean' until I give the 'ok'.
Each room has it's own 'color' and specific cards with specific 'jobs' listed.
The cards for the dinning room....
Up close look at present chore cards for the dinning room.
This method has proven to be a changeable and workable method for keeping our home organized and liveable!This post written and property of Homeschool Circus and can be found at: www.upatdawnreadytowork.blogspot.com . If you are reading this from a source other than www.upatdawnreadytowork.blogspot.com you are reading a scraped copy!
