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Chores/Job Chart Ideas???
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I know that there are so many ways to list of jobs/chores for children. I am a mom to 6 kiddos (9, 7, 6, 4, 3, & 2) and all of my kids have daily jobs/chores except for the 2 year old (although she does help a little). I am looking for a way to list their jobs as a visual reminder and also give me a way to see at a glance what has been done. I typically take the Summer to teach new jobs to our kids that they will be responsible for the next year. Ideally I would like to use it to train them and also as a reminder of the “next thing they need to do” as they begin to work independently. I am looking of something simple and uncomplicated. Any ideas???
We had Choreganizers. Great for non-readers. Not sure if it’s still made but you may be able to find one online.
Theyre little perforated cards with a picture of the chore. I had these plastic sheets with slots in them (they were Mary Kay sample holder sheets!). I would put their cards on the left side under their name and when they finished it, they could move it over to the “well done!” column. On the back there were simple instructions for the chore. Loved it. Now that kids are older, most are assigned a room to take care of (living room, bathroom, dining room or laundry). Then we rotate after about two weeks.
This is the chore chart I’m currently using. I have four daughters, each has a breakfast chore and a dinner (lunch) chore. I follow the FlyLady’s zones (loosely), so that helps us to not forget about parts of the house. I hope this at least gives you a starting place!
I printed it out, laminated it, and then I write the dates on each square with a dry erase marker. I simply erase each day at night time, and then it’s easy to find where we are on the chart. At the beginning of a new month, I just jot down the dates again in dry erase marker.
Thanks so much for your feedback ladies. I apologize, but it has taken me a little while to hop back on here at SCM. I will be looking into your suggestions. With 6 kids, now 9 and under, I need a system that is visual. I am debating on assigning a child a room. That is what we have done in the past. I think part of the problem is that we have too much stuff. We have been minimizing now for the last 6 or so months. We have really realized the benefits of minimalism. While minimalism can seem extreme, it doesn’t have to be. Having so much can become a burden and take so much time to maintain. We have been going through everything and have asked the question, “How does this ______ add value to my life”? I will be looking into your suggestions and see if I can’t get something put together quickly. 🙂 My sanity is on the line!!!
I did a chore chart in excel and put it on the fridge. Every kids has their own color. It is a weekly chart that I print fresh each week and they place a check or a sticker over the chore when it is ready to be inspected. The top of the page is their daily chores – daily ablutions, clearing dishes from breakfast, lunch, and dinner. One kid sweeps daily while the other unloads the dishwasher. Then the bottom has 2 chores a day that they do for just that day of the week. Tuesday is our trash day, so Monday they gather all trash from the house and take it to the curb for next day pick up and I split the rooms up and they also gather all the dirty clothes and take them to the utility room so I can start laundry. Tuesday they clean all appliances inside and out, I just split them up so it is even. Wednesday one dusts and the other one vacuums the room when the duster is done. Thursday they each make one bathroom sparkle. Friday they clean out the car and vacuum it. Saturday they clean the yard and we have a dog that digs, so we have been keeping her digging at bay by gathering all the dog poop and filling her holes with it. Oh how they love this job! LOL You get the gist.
I allow them to swap or negotiate for different ones as long as it works for every one. They pretty much do everything in the house except the cooking, laundry, and washing the dishes. They can sweep, but I do the mopping. My kids are 10 & 11.
With your age and number of kids, I would probably do a buddy system where an older mentors a younger and just split chores 3 ways.
If you are interested, I can type up exactly what I have, just let me know.
We use chore sticks. I wrote everything that needs to be done on craft sticks. We have ‘kitchen’, ‘daily’, ‘weekly’ and ‘zone’ categories. There are 3 kids and myself, so I divided the ‘kitchen’ jobs and ‘daily’ jobs into 4. For the zone jobs we rotate through all the areas of the house in the 5 week rotation. Some jobs don’t have be done that often so I just have written the month they are due, and only put them out when we need to do them.
Every morning each of us draws one stick from each jar, and then we do the kitchen again after supper.
This is the best system I’ve used so far. It’s easy to keep track of which jobs have been done. The kids just leave the stick on the end of the counter for me to check. There is less complaining because I’m not the one assigning a particular job – it’s just luck of the draw. They might moan about a job, but it’s not directed at me. And because I draw sticks too, eventually I have a turn to do a good thorough job at each area of the house.
My kids are 11, 9, and 7. If I had younger kids as well, I would do what someone else suggested and have one older child take each younger child to mentor.
Oh, what great ideas. Okay, my wheels are spinning! Thanks so much ladies! cdm2kk, do you mind sharing with me what you have for your kids. That would be great! I think color coding definitely is something we need. That is a great idea with the craft sticks too, although it may be harder to keep up with them all with 6 kids, but you have given me some things to think about. Also, I had planned on having the older kids mentor the younger ones. I already have the older ones involved in checking the work of the littles. I need to sit down and work on this over the weekend! Thanks so much!
Child #1 Daily Chores (blue)
Personal HygieneM T W THF S S
Fill pet water dishesM T W THF S S
Clean Baths: sink, toilet, and hang towels M T W THF S S
check bath trash & empty if full, check hamper & if full take to
utlity roomM T W THF S S
Put away school stuffM T W THF S S
Sweep Dining, kitchen, & Utility roomM T W THF S S
Pick up your clutterM T W THFSS
Scrape, rinse & stack all meal dishesM T W THF S S
Gather any dishes & wipe island counter.M T W THF S S
Child #2 Daily Chores (pink)
Personal HygieneM T W THF S S
Fill pet food dishesM T W THF SS
Clean dinner table & wipe clean all chairsM T W THF S S
Check kitchen & Living room trash & if full emptyM T W THFS S
Put away school stuffM T WTHFSS
Unload dishwasherM T W THF S S
Pick up your clutterM T W THF S S
Scrape, rinse & stack all meal dishesM T W THF S S
Put animals to bed & lock doorsM T W THF SS
MONDAY
empty living room/office, & kitchen trash (blue)
Wipe down utility appliances (blue)
Empty both bath & utility trash (pink)
Wipe down Kitchen appliances (pink)
TUESDAY
Clean electronic screens & mirrors (blue)
Clean Microwave (blue)
Dust furniture, vacuum living room (pink)
Wash kid bed sheets & blankets(living room) & dry & put back (pink)
WEDNESDAY
Clean both toilets & Spray clean tub (blue)
Wash both bath & utility rugs, & dog blankets, dry & put back (blue)
Stock both bathrooms (pink)
Clean Stove top (pink) – this isn’t wiping clean, but using that paste and really scrubbing it till mirror finish….
THURSDAY – (pink & Blue with me)
Week 1 – Kitchen – organize inside cabinets, get rid of clutter on cabinets & I do a full mop and wax on this day
Week 2 – trash cans & Closets – kids wash out all trash cans with soap and water & then organize their closets removing any clutter and I do my closet and the pantry removing anything expired.
Week 3 – baths & utility – Deep clean and de clutter of the ultility which is where we come in and dump stuff. LOL, Also give bathrooms a good scrubbing and decluttering.
Week 4 – Dining & medicines – declutter dining area and organize and throw out any expired items.
FRIDAY
CLEAN YOUR ROOM & vacuum (blue)
Clean out fridge of old food (blue)
CLEAN YOUR ROOM & vacuum (pink)
Clean out fridge of old food (pink)
SATURDAY
Clean out the car & pick up the yard (blue)
Clean out pet water dishes (blue)
Clean out the car & pick up the yard (pink)
Wash off porch & change feeder food (pink)
NO ELECTRONICS UNTIL CHORES AND SCHOOL ARE COMPLETE! SUNDAY you will be required to complete any tasks NOT done.
Hope this helps and it looks better and easier to follow in columns and color coded, but I think you can get how it is arranged. It has worked for us for about 3 years now. We tweak as our lives change.
I still help out here an there, but it really does take a load off of me to have this help and it takes them about 30 minutes of their time a day, so not really to time consuming at all. I am not a neat freak, but I dislike clutter and if we have someone coming over, it takes just a quick run through to make things look super spiffy.
I mow because we have a rider and we mow about 4 acres and just aren’t ready to hand that over just yet. My husband usually washes the cars because the kids just don’t have the stamina to finish or do it as well as him.
I do add extra chores in, but these are usually when rules are broken or they try and pass off a chore as done and it isn’t or it wasn’t done properly (like sweeping everything under a rug for instance) then I add a chore so they learn that they end up working harder trying to get out of doing work. Anyway, I add washing outside windows with small step ladder and hose and squeegee OR gather fallen tree limbs for BBQ pit wood OR Power washing wooden fences OR Bathing dogs etc.
Best of Luck!
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