Pick a Chore Chore Chart

I posted about a chore chart I made for the kids here over a year ago. Just recently I had a friend who asked me to explain how I used it. And since at the time there were a lot of people interested in it I decided to explain it in depth. This is the chore chart...

On and by the way you could change it out by the season as well. If that is your thing. For example a Turkey with feathers, a Christmas tree with ornaments, a snowman with snow flakes falling, an ocean with shells, your imagination is your only limit.

I made all the pieces out of foam and used green tongue depressors for the flower stems. I glued the flower pot onto a piece of poster board and then used a exacto knife to make slits for the tongue depressors. If you have access to a laminator, it would hold up better if it was laminated. On the back of the flower stems I wrote chores. The chores I had were to help with the dishes, clean the bathroom (i.e. downstairs, kids, etc.), clean the front storm door, vacuum the living room or kitchen floor(I have a Shark vacuum that works great for this), help fold clothes, mop the kitchen floor, pick up the living room and put away(i.e. toys, books, clothes, blankets, etc.), vacuum the stairs, etc. I was always around to help with the different cleaning products used. To help keep the kids safe they used Clorox wipes to wipe down the sink and toilets. I sprayed the Windex on mirrors and/or doors and to clean the inside of the toilets we used the Clorox toilet wand. I put the wand together and then threw away the scrubber after they were finished. As I stated before we used a Shark vacuum to vacuum the living room and the kitchen floors. I also purchased a child sized mop and broom for them to use as well. Clothes baskets work great for picking up the living room, if things are needing to be moved from one room to another.

On my chore chart, as you can see in the picture, there were several colors. The kids never seemed to pick one color over the other so I must have done a decent job of mixing the chores up. You could use only one color if you suspect that this may be a problem for you. You could also do two colors one for the younger children and another for the older ones. One problem I did run into was trying to get the order down. You can't very well mop until the floor is swept. I usually had the kids pick a new chore and saved that one for later. But it often got confusing. So you could color code the chores into first chores, second chores, and so on until all the chores have been finished.

As to how I made it work for me. I started this in the summer and we would have a chore day. On chore day the children would choose a chore a piece until all the chores were completed. This helped us to have more time to do things as a family throughout the week. I usually put chore days on the calendar so that they knew it was coming. I also used the chores as boredom busters. If the kids were going to tell me they were bored or had nothing to do I would tell them to pick a chore. Once school started I had would have them chose a chore a day. This way all the chores were done before the weekend and we had more time to spend as a family.

My main goal in doing chores was to have the children understand everything that goes into the running of the household. And to try to get them to lend a hand on their own without always having to be asked. It wasn't punishment. They actually seemed to enjoy chore days. More than I thought they would. I think being able to do things that normally they would not be allowed to do proved to be fun. The older two also seemed to make it a challenge. They would try to see who could do more and be the quickest. My biggest suggestion is to walk them through the whole process several times until you know they can use the tools and do the job the way you would like it to be done. There is nothing wrong with gentle corrections. But do remember that these are children and they will not be able to do the job perfectly. So if it is going to bother you to have a few streaks on the mirror or a few crumbs left on the floor then you may just want to save that job for yourself.

Also, this particular chore chart was for household chores only. For daily chores they had a personal chore chart in each of their rooms. These magnetic charts lined out what was expected of them daily. Daily chores included things like make bed, take clothes to laundry, get dressed (either for school or bed), take bath, clean room, get backpacks ready for school, etc. Most of these chores were things that they would do before school in the morning just simply getting ready for the day. It seemed to work better to have the daily and household chores separated. I also liked that I could just ask them if they are able to move all their magnets yet. Then all they had to do was go check. And I was not having to constantly get onto them about what their job was at that moment.