Chores Schmores

With a household of seven people, one dog and occasional guests we have no shortage of chores to keep up with. We believe it is important for kids to have chores to do. It is my responsibility to teach my children how to be responsible adults so here is what we do. I made up this corkboard last year, glued on some ribbon and added cup hooks. I also purchased little round discs with holes already in them. Each child has a row with their name on it and their afternoon chores on the corresponding hooks. The whole project cost me less than $8.

This system works pretty well for us when we use it. I do forget some weeks and just shoot from the hip at chore time but I really like this board. The older ones like being able to look themselves when chore time rolls around. They know that everyday at the end of quiet time we will do chores. I can have them already up on the board and they know which five things they need to do. That makes my life easier also when I don't have five little people all needing to know what's next at the same time. Doing it this way also gives them the freedom to choose what they do first and what they save for last.

I have extra discs stored near by filled out with chores and we rotate the jobs so no one person is stuck cleaning the bathrooms all the time. Some days they only have three things to do and some days they have all four. Even the youngest ones have easy ones for them like collecting garbages, shaking out rugs and general pickup.

What works for you?