Chores can be a controversial subject. I know that opinions on the subject vary widely and I respect the many choices people make regarding them. In our home, there has to be chores. Everyone has to lend a hand or no on would be happy. And everyone would be naked and eating off of paper plates on unmade beds. It's a way of life for us and it works. After much pondering on the subject of chores I came to the conclusion that requiring children to help out with the running of the home is not in any way oppression as long as each person in the home is doing their fair share. As the old adage says "Many hands make light work." and in this home there are certainly many hands.
There are some tasks that I never require of my children. I do not ask them to assume care of the younger children. I have never asked them to change the baby's diaper or bathe him or her. These tasks rest on me as the mother in my opinion. Now there are times when the older girls are feeling nurturing and they want to change the baby or rock her. This is all fine with me. I am not going to turn down anyone who wants to change my little ones diaper! But we don't do the "buddy system" as far as the kids go.
Having said all that I am not posting an editorial on chores, my intention was to share our method of dispersing the chores and how to keep kids motivated to do them cheerfully. Upon one of my late night blog reading expeditions I came across a site that mentioned the use of Chore Packs. A lightbulb went on in my head and I knew that this could really work for us and other people with large families.
Chore Packs are small folders, one for each child that contain a small card for each chore the child is expected to complete each day. Ours look like this.
Each evening I go through a stack of laminated cards and deal out the ones for each child and put them into their little folders.
In the morning the kids all check their chore packs to see what they have to accomplish throughout the day. I have found that kids do not like open-ended days when it comes to chores. They like to know how much needs to be done and then they can do it at their own leisure. It saves me a lot of nagging. I hate nagging so much and with this system I almost never have to.
Caleb has easier chores like Get dressed, pick up toys etc.. The older kids have easy chores and then some more detailed ones like re-shelving books, dusting, and cleaning bathrooms. Caleb always asks me for more chores. He loves doing chores. I wish they never grew out of that!
I keep all the folders in a little basket, for easy keeping.
As each chore is completed the kids will hand me the card and I will check to make sure the job is done completely and properly. If it is then it goes into their pocket on my wall chart.
At the end of each day, if they have an empty folder, that means they have done all of their jobs and they get a Mom Dollar.
On Sundays if they have done all their chores they will have 7 mom dollars. Sometimes they have less because they did not get finished. They ar allowed to cash in their mom dollars for either actual cash or they can shop in the mom store. The little kids love the mom store. I keep a basket filled with things that they have asked me to buy while out shopping. You know the things.
"Mom can you buy me this gum?"
"Mom can I get new crayons?"
I will secretly stock up on these things and then they can buy them later. It's also a way to keep us from making purchases 'just because' too much.
The kids can also choose to bank up their mom dollars and cash them in later if there is something they are saving for.
So there you have it. How the troops do their duties in our house. It may not work for everyone but it sure works well for us.
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