Thursday, September 2, 2010

Chores Revisited

Well, I have to confess.  While I learned a lot from my old chore system and I still highly recommend the book, I have now switched to yet another system.  The funny thing is, it is the one I used about 10 years ago when I had only 4 kids.  We had this same chart hanging in our laundry room two houses ago.  It's a great chart and comes with a little system that is explained in the kit that comes with it.  I ordered it from Doorpost.com and it is really user friendly, especially if you have more than 2 children and lots of daily/weekly jobs.  Here is a picture of the chart that you fill out and then cut/color the little pictures that come with it.  After I filled it out, I had it laminated and hung it up.  Since I had already organized my cleaning with the other system into daily, weekly and monthly jobs, it wasn't hard to put them all on the chart. What was making it hard with the other system, was taking the time every morning to divvy up the jobs.  With morning sickness and summer craziness, it just wasn't working.  Also, since I was changing the jobs daily, it would take me a while to figure out who wasn't doing their job.  Like, if I see that the dog hasn't been fed or the living room not straightened, then I would have to go to the folders and find who was supposed to be doing it.  What I do now to keep things "new", is I change the jobs monthly. So, at the beginning of the month I rotate jobs.  Each child gets one daily job and one or two weekly job rows (there are a few jobs on each row) that have to be done by Saturday afternoon.  For monthly jobs, I am going to put them in a jar and when someone gets in trouble, they have to do a monthly job.  Does this make sense?  Check out the Doorpost website.  They have some cool stuff.  So, this is my current system. Let's see how long this last :o)

6 comments:

  1. I look forward to hearing how it goes!
    Jessica

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  2. This looks amazingly similar to our chore chart! We call them "zones" and when it's time for a ten minute pick-up we yell "Get in the Zone!":)
    Love gleaning ideas from other moms- can't wait to read more about your life as well!
    P.S.Thanks for stopping by my family blog! I have a blog just for our daughter Lily (with ds) if you have time and would like to take a peek:) babynumber10.blogspot.com
    I looked around your site for a birth story about your little guy...have you written one? I love birth stories:)

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  3. THANK YOU FOR THIS! I HAVE TRIED SO MANY THINGS BUT YOU HAVE GIVEN ME SOME MORE ENCOURAGEMENT :)

    FROM A MOM OF 7

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  4. O.K. I am a little jealous because I have to do all my chores all by my self and my chore board looks like yours. I am the mother of 5 dogs, 4 foster dogs, 11 cats, 1 cockatil, and 100 finches. :)

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  5. Hi, I'm trying to figure out a system for my four kids 8 and under. Are you still using this chart? Thank you!!

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  6. Actually Emy, I'm not using it anymore due to my kids being older. It is a great system for when your kids are young though. I currently just have my kids do the same chores everyday to keep up with the house mess and then we rotate kitchen helper of the day. Then on Saturdays we do what chores are needed and I write up on the board whan they have to do on that day (my husband helps with this : )

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Thanks so much for your comments! I love them and they keep me writing. I really do read each one.