Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Works for Me Wednesday




We have a large household - the two of us, and each of our two children, plus a dog = seven. It takes a lot of time and effort to keep the house in order with so many people (and a dog). Sometimes it just seems easier to ask who is closest to go set the table or empty the dishwasher, but we have found that having a chore calendar motivates the kids to take their responsibility seriously, and running the household becomes more efficient.





This is not rocket science, but it certainly helps our busy family. We have certain chores that are the kids' responsibilities. Each child has an assigned chore or two for the week and another for the weekend. The chores rotate weekly so no one has to do the hardest chore every time, and they get some variety.




The chore calendar stays posted on the refrigerator for the month, so there is never a question about whose turn it is to do what. You can get the kids into a routine so that you don't even have to remind them to do their job. (well, in theory) And it doesn't take long to create one using the calendar creation in Microsoft Publisher. Once you get accustommed to creating one, it's mostly just copying/pasting. Publisher does most of the work.






This works great for our family! Maybe some of you can adapt it to fit the needs of your family. Have a great week, everyone!



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9 comments:

  1. I love this idea! It's a great way to keep it all nice and organized.
    Our Happy Happenings
    Livin' With Me

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  2. Great idea! I'll have to try something like this, as we haven't really been assigning chores to the kids, though I know we should.

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  3. My oldest is only 2 1/2 and I'm still waiting for him to be old enough to really help much at all - much less use a chore chart. But someday we'll get there.... right?

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  4. My daughter uses a card system for chores. Everything that ever needs to be done to keep the house in order is written on a card - different color cards for different frequency. White for daily, pink for weekly, green for monthly, etc. At chore time each day she pulls out the card for the chores she wants the kids to do that day. Then they each choose a card or two. It works quite well, and really mixes up who does what.

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  5. We have found that the chart works the best for us too, just need to get it made, I fell behind for February and it has been chaos so I need to get one made up for March....fast.

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  6. Absolutely - rope them all in :)

    Thanks for stopping by my blog - lovely to have you, you are very welcome :)

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  7. I copied your idea! thank you! I usually just tell them what there chore is for the month (like taking care of the dogs, cats or dishes).... but this way I'll just stick it on a calendar on the fridge.

    I even put the earn extra money thing on mine also. Which seemed to make them happy.
    How much do you give them for extra chores?

    ~Amy

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  8. We rotate our chores too - we were using a card system which was just rotated every Monday morning but we changed chores around and I haven't got to writing up new cards so my daughter writes up a new chart every week. Now why haven't we thought of doing a monthly rotatation and be done with it! Great idea! and one we will be doing as of Monday.
    Thanks for sharing your chore tip!

    Belinda
    Lifestyle-Homeschool

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