I have tried a lot of different ways of assigning my children chores over the years, and none of them seemed to work.
A Simple Chore Chart For Children
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Then one day, in a middle of a “oh my word this house is a mess and I need your help” fit, I grabbed a clip board, and our current chore chart system was born.
I simply divide up the page into 3 sections, and write the children’s names from oldest to youngest in the those sections.
Then as I am going through my home, tidying up in the morning, while the kids are busy with school, I write down any simple jobs I see under the name of the child I want to do the work.
This also keeps me from doing simple tasks that I could delegate to the children to free up time to work on more difficult tasks.
We pay our children to do most chores. I know this is a very controversial topic. Each family has to make up rules that fit their values.
In our family, we pay children to do all jobs, but maintenance of their bedrooms. We feel that this is closest to the real world scenario we can set up.
We want them to learn that money is earned by hard work. We also want them to learn how to manage that money wisely, so we need them to earn money to teach them how to do just that.
What I love about this clip board, is that it is portable. I can carry it with me and jot down chores as I see them.
I also love that it is flexible. No two days are ever a like in our home. If I find we have nothing planned that evening I assign a greater amount of chores. If we have several things on our plates that evening, I assign just a few chores.
I can also alter the charts according to what needs to be done in the house that day, meaning the most urgent chores are given priority.
Has your family found a chore assigning system that works great for you?
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Jenni says
Thanks for sharing this! 🙂
Mirjam says
This is bnralilit. I have tried all sorts of things with varied success, usually because it’s that much more work to keep track of what everyone’s earned, who did what chore, who gets what reward, bleargh!Now I’m going to try this, because it can be very simple. I’m going to give my three younger kids stones for co-operation too (making the little sister a sandwich or reading her a book) and the littlest child can just have a smaller jar because she can’t do as much as her big brothers yet. Excellent, thank you. I got here from stumbleupon, and I see a lot of overly complicated chart-based stuff, which I promptly click right past, but your system makes simple, logical sense, and for that I thank you!
Laura says
Great idea! I’m still searching for a method that will work really well for us. I like the idea that no two days are the very same. (Visiting from WFMW.)
Victoria says
Your welcome, and thanks for visiting
Melodie says
I actually really appreciate how non-fancy this is. And I think it could work here at our house too! Thanks for simplifying things!
Bugs says
No matter how great an idea is, if it doesn’t actually get used it’s not going to work. I love the sheer useability of this idea!
Victoria says
Thanks Bugs and I agree, useability is key.