Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

Tagged: binders, chore charts, chores, organization, Phone computer files sharing, planner, planners, TOC

This topic has 27 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 5 months ago by TailorMade.

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December 30, 2012 at 2:01 pm
Melissa Henson
Participant
Wow, TailorMade. That was very helpful and intriguing. Would you be willing to share those charts somehow? It would be really helpful to see your exacmples in order to then come up with our own. My biggest issue is organization and PAPERS. I am always writing all of these possible schedules and chore charts and things on all sorts of papers, but then they just end up in stacks and never placed into action because none are ever quite right. I like the idea of FOUR chore charts to rotate because I’ve never known how to have my girls take turns with who cleans the bathroom or vacuums (so that they each get good at it) or other various things like that that might be better to change each week. Your ideas sound spot on!
Thank you for sharing and if there is any way to scan and post or email, it would be greatly appreciated!
Melissa
December 30, 2012 at 8:17 pm
chocodog
Participant
I also have tried different day planners and different ideas for chore charts. If I could program my own I would have a drag and drop chore chart that has daily, weekly, every other week, monthly, and seasonal. I also would have the kids individual chores by those to drag to. I also would set it up by a yearly calandar so I could seperate it into 4 seasons for things such as gardening and lawn mowing, canning season ect…. I have the perfect idea I just don’t know how to program it.
   I also like the options of some of the free planner pages from SCM and some I have found on line. I like some of Donna Young’s pgs, Notebooking pages. com, 4teachers.org, Heart of wisdom.com , Worksheets work pgs, The master planner, chart jungle.com, For paid planner pages I like Mom’s tool Belt she has a special till the end of the year that is 15.95 for life. I do like alot of her planner pages also. I also like some of the Maxwell’s book ideas. I don’t care for their layout for the online pages though. I find my computer doesn’t like it and so it didn’t work that well for me. I just incorporated it into my own idea.
   I also made my own chore chart that I hang on my fridge. I spent alot of time on it and I am sure there was probably an easier way somewhere but it seems to work the best for my family.
What I did was laminated a workbox page grid (four boxes down x 4 boxes across). I did one for each kid in their color. It has the day at the top. Mon-Sun. that can be velcroed on/off. I also laminated some of the chores that were 1 inch squares that I found on other websites. I took the rest of the chores that I found we use and printed them out on my computer. I cut them into 1 inch squares and laminated them too. I put velcro on the back and velcro on the front corner. This way the kids can see what they have to do. They flip over the chore card when they are done with it. This way they know what they still have to do.
   The school stuff I put in a large Homeschool binder. I used the front cover and side cover from Mom’s Tool Belt. I really like her colorful pages for my binder. I have a seperate binder for other worksheets that I like but that I am not using at the time. I find that if I need something, if I look in there, I can usually come up with something that fits. I have my own ideas of what I want in a planner but haven’t been able to find exactly what I want so I put my own spin on some of the things I have found online. Most of it is free. Until I get a better computer and I am able to mess around with some software I will continue to use these ideas.
Not sure that is what you were looking for but I thought I would share since I also have trouble with the same thing. Maybe someday I can make my own site…. Tehe he!
December 30, 2012 at 11:12 pm
sheraz
Participant
@Melissa – Using paper and pencils to plan daily work in detail drives me BONKERS!! 😉 Somehow I always miss something and have to erase more than I want to. here is a blog post I made about how I’ve used TOC’s to keep our records in the past – it might help you “visualize” it.
http://mysouldothdelight.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/planning-and-keeping-records-for-a-school-year/
It is simple and really works, but for some reason my kids prefer the check-off lists from the SCM Organizer. LOL I think it might be because it looks “done” when they mark it off.
For organizing papers that are pretty and make me feel like I might want to look at a list of things to do (haha), I second the http://momstoolbelt.com/. She has a lot of stuff on there that I use everyday – like my cookbook pages. 😉
@Tailormade – love the idea of 4 weeks rotating cleaning schedules. I struggle with that part!
December 31, 2012 at 5:13 am
chocodog
Participant
Sheraz- I really like your ideas for keeping your table of contents in your subjects tabs. Putting the dates by them was a really good idea. That was pretty clever. I think it would be easier to do that and mark it down then to put it on a seperate peice of paper. Love, Love, Love!
     Love your blog by the way!   🙂
December 31, 2012 at 1:26 pm
TailorMade
Participant
My grid was made years ago by a friend. Not sure how to get to anyone, but I’ll work on it. I’m away from home at this point. Will work on it later this week.
Basically, I got tired of FlyLady email years ago because it didn’t quite match my needs/wants. And, it caused me (um, maybe that’s an excuse) to be even more the martyr as I did the all the chores instead of delegating. This slides out of line from time to time, you understand. But, the charts are always an automatic way to immediately get back on track. Sort an obedience issue for non more than the kids. 🙁 The charts for school & chores help me to obey God’s call on my life. I have tweak them occasionally when a new or neglected chore presents itself….like purchasing a hand milked cow in November. 🙂
Let me gather my thoughts on how vest to explain the charts when I get home, if I don’t find a way to post them. I rely solely on my phone for Internet. We have no Internet service at home. It’s peace on earth, really. 🙂
I pulled ideas from various TOC posts for the school binder. Divider headings make it easy to flip to the next subject. This has been the easiest year of all and we started homeschooling with the birth of our eldest son in ’92!
Blessings,
Becca<><
December 31, 2012 at 2:51 pm
missceegee
Participant
Becca, you can get a free box.com account and upload the forms there. Next come here and post the share link. I’d like to see all of your charts.
December 31, 2012 at 4:42 pm
TailorMade
Participant
I’m going to set up an account now while I’m on the ride home from a weekend family wedding. (DH is driving!). 🙂
I’m wondering if it will work with a phone? I need to learn how to move files back and forth from computer to phone and up/download to this forum and elsewhere. Hey, I like my library running on old fashioned cards, too. So I’m a paper kinda girl. Need to catch up to be able to share. ;0)
Becca<><
December 31, 2012 at 4:52 pm
TailorMade
Participant
Oh, Sister! I’m changing my mind. This phone is not what I want to use to learn about box.com. Looks like a very useful tool though. I’ll learn more about it during the next couple of weeks and see if I can get my charts to all of you soon. I think I’ve talked about doing this before. Maybe I’ll actually accomplish it in 2013.
;0)
Becca<><
December 31, 2012 at 5:44 pm
missceegee
Participant
Becca, if you want to email the files to me, I can upload them for you, if that is easier. I’ll PM you my email address, just in case.
There is a box.com app for iphone, too, that’s a bit easier.
Christie
December 31, 2012 at 6:10 pm
TailorMade
Participant
Christie,
My only problem is that my charts aren’t a file. They are just copies I make. The original was made by a friend who didn’t save it. Im thinking I’ll take a picture, or find a scanner to create a new one. DH tried his best to explain how “easy” it would be to create something similar to it in excel, but I’ve never seen the point when I just erase and pencil something else in, or make more copies if I’m using the chart for something else. Somehow, I think I retain things better if I write things out instead of typing. 🙂
Either way, I need to learn to broaden my horizons. I’m stuck in the past. ;0)
Thanks for encouraging me and the offer to help. If I can get it onto my computer, I will send it your way first.
Be ca
January 2, 2013 at 12:54 pm
Melissa Henson
Participant
🙂 Becca ~ Thank you so much for all of the effort. I totally get it (not being able to figure out how to do things on a computer that seem so easy for everyone else). Do what you can. If not, I’ll just have to get my own brain around it.
If you can’t upload or send us charts, could you possibly say here what you do when just to give us an idea?
Thanks again for everyone’s ideas. Organization is my WORST “asset”, hehe. I can decide on curriculum and even put it into place, but how I keep track of it or plan it or record it, I simply cannot ever get right. I’ll get there. 🙂
Melissa
January 6, 2013 at 6:59 pm
TailorMade
Participant
Ok, so far I’ve not had a chance to even open up my computer to figure out how I might possibly get my charts onto it to transfer to box.com, or to all of you in any way.
So, I thought I’d just jot some notes about them until I can figure out the technical stuff.
Pretend you are looking at a binder opened up sideways. I use page protectors to store my charts, so a “two page spread” will have my chores and menus on “top,” above the binder rings, and the kids chore chart for the same week will be “below” those rings. Are they even called rings? My vocabulary access is limited this afternoon.
Anyway, the way in which I slip the charts into the page protectors means that 1/2 of one week will be on one side and 1/2 of the next week will be on the other side of an individual protector. But, the two halves of a whole week will be side by side. Make sense?
My charts actually have headings that don’t fit for this use as they were created years ago for keeping track of studies. The grid of boxes are set up 6 rows across by 7 columns down. The headings that were originally placed above these columns are Subject, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
On my personal chart, the labels I’ve penciled in under subject are: health care, breakfast, lunch, dinner, home, garden, and records.
Obviously, Sunday and Saturday aren’t listed. In the border above the grid, I pencil in Sunday’s info. Saturday is penciled into the border below the grid. It works for me. ;0)
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are self explanatory. Health care is where I remind myself to take supplements and which exercise I’m to do. Oh, I’ve recently added “milk cow” in this box. Like she’ll let me forget. ;0)
The home row is used for the chores I want to accomplish around our house. Similar to Fly Lady, I’ve zoned out our home in the hopes that I can manage it well over each month’s time. No, I don’t always follow this, but when I do, our lives run smoothly.
So, it looks this for the week one page 1 going across page 1:
Up top Sunday- wash sheets. Make sandwiches for week’s lunches (I don’t always make the sandwiches, but it’s a huge time saver when I do. And, I enlist help.)
Monday- dust/sweep master bed & bath.
Tuesday- organize master bath drawers, note necessities.
Wednesday- straighten/purge master closets.
Thursday- library work day (new on my chore list)
Friday- master bed & bath windows & lights
Saturday- R&R
Week 2 my page focusses on kitchen & utility rooms.
Week 3 focusses on living & dining rooms
Week 4 focusses on outdoor chores that can be handled monthly (weeding various flower beds and any tree needs)
The garden row reads across m-f:
Weed/ water & canning/ weed & canning/ water & canning/ weed. Canning doesn’t happen daily every week, and sometimes not at all. But, I have it there as a reminder of how to handle it in season.
Records reads across m-f:
Invoice/ knit/ bills & filing/ grocery list & menu check/ park & groceries
Week 1, page 2 for the kids’ chores looks like this (ages 19, 17, 12, 6, and 20)
(m-f listed with very few changes other weeks other than swapping off yard chores and some library work. sat r&r, sun remove sheets and make beds back up again.)
W- bedroom windows, front door, closet drawers/ blow porch, patio, sidewalks, outside trash/ dust-wash kitchen table & chairs/ mow/ mop entry, hall, & bathroom, bedroom lights, sweep library
G-bedroom windows, closet, drawers/ master bathtub/ pantry straightening/ wash Mom’s truck 1st thursday/ vac & dust truck, bedroom lights
N- clean under bed, closet, drawers/ toilets/ vac fireplace & couch, dust living room & entry/ outside trash & sticks/ clean door knobs&switchplates
Z- fill dog food container/ sweep utility & steps/ check dog food for grocery list, gather library books/DVDs that go to other libraries (if any)/ help straighten library/ water outdoor potted plants
H- living room & bedroom windows, closet/ microwave, kids’ tub/ kitchen cabinet fronts if needed/ weed eat/ dust bedroom & living room, bedroom lights
Probably TMI, but hope that’s a glimpse without looking at the charts. If/when I have more time to take my computer into town, I’ll see if I can get the charts or something similar onto box.com.
Blessings,
Becca<><
January 6, 2013 at 10:29 pm
TailorMade
Participant
My TOC school binder/schedule planner is very similar to Sheraz’s set up.
Becca<><