You’ll either think I’ve gone mad or you’ll hail me as a genius, but here was my solution to the summertime blues:
Years ago when my 3 elementary school-aged kids were home for the summer and I was working almost full-time at home, I decided that I shouldn’t be the only one stuck with the housework and I was tired of seeing my kids loaf all summer. So I created chore charts. A set of 3, one fore each kid, rotating weekly: A chart, B chart and C chart. All the same with chores shifting around to keep things fair. (During the school year, their only chores are unloading the dishwasher and the occasional household chore here and there over the weekend.) The image shows one chart example, the kid with that chart is to check daily and do whatever has a blank box next to it, then check off when done. Click on chart image to enlarge.
When the charts were enforced, I found my kids were pretty great about accomplishing their tasks, with the exception of animal feedings, they could do their chores anytime they chose each day as long as they were done. I know for my children, routine and structure is everything and keeps us all getting along. Although the charts look cruel, they aren’t really so bad, most chores are quite small and when shared, not as many as it seems. I am pretty cool about exceptions depending on the day’s activities. Some personal chores helped the kids remember to take care of themselves. And of course, I attached them to cute clipboards and hung them in a nice little row in the kichen. I haven’t used them in a couple of years and just came across the files. I think I’ll bring ’em back out and modify them a bit in a couple of months!
