I am working on getting the new house unpacked and organized. The worst part of living in a household with LOTS of people is the huge mess that gets made! I’m choosing to make my kids responsible for their own messes and to divide the work among all of us so that it isn’t such a drag to be a homemaker AND a homeschooler! When we work together, we will make lighter work….right?!
Various Drafts of my CHORE LISTS! Whew! |
I think the system I am going to use will be to have daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. I want to outline a daily checklist of expectations. These are things that they must do because they are a member of the family and will get no payment for them. This includes things like eating 3 meals a day, brushing their teeth, getting dressed, putting clothes in the hamper, drinking lots of water, and so on.
I wrote out a master list of chores that I think the kids could help with. I divided it between upstairs and downstairs, and then wrote how often they could be done. Mostly, I ended up with once a week or once a month. Now, I’m making some lists and labeling them A, B, or C. I am going to make them random each week and each month so no one kid is stuck with the same set of chores each time. However, there’s a lot of overlap. There are 2 kid bathrooms and 1 guest bathroom, for example, so no matter which weekly list you get, there will be a toilet cleaning involved! I’m also putting their personal and sheet laundry on the lists so that we can stay on top of that and they can feel good knowing they’ll get paid.
So far, I am still working on what I think is fair as far as payment. I am thinking I may let them earn a dollar for their age each week… So my 7 year old could earn $7/week, my 6 year old $6/week, my 3 year old $3/week. Not only do I expect better quality of work the older they are, but I know that they will value the money and work connection more than their younger sibling(s). I’m obviously not assigning my 10 month old any chores (yet). 🙂
I would also like to implement a family command center. There’s a perfect spot upstairs where I could create and set up a bulletin board type area to place the chores (I’m thinking either velcro on laminated papers OR page protectors – but with dry erase markers to check things off either way!), as well as a calendar and any important upcoming events. We may eventually post an official homeschool schedule, too… We’ll see!
What system does your family use? What is best for your needs and how large is your family? How old are your kids? I’d love some input and ideas! Don’t worry, there will be updates as I go along, so you guys can see how well everything is working out.
Linda says
I am actually impressed that you get young children to help with chores. I suppose if I had started that process earlier my 12 year old would be better at it. My daughter has an allowance, and certain chores are required for full payment. However, money is not the only payment. She can have additional free time on the TV, sometimes she gets a new book (either paper or on the Nook), sometimes I let her have additional game playing time on the computer. I divide free time between the games she wants to play and a list of educational games she can choose from. Most of the educational games she can choose from are on http://www.LearningGamesForKids.com. Her favorite is QWERTY warriors which is a keyboarding game that helps improve speed and accuracy. Anyway, the rewards are a mixture of money/allowance and other things she enjoys.