Chilren's Chore Charts

"Train up child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

Proverbs 22:6

I had a request for me to describe how my children do chores.  I never thought of blogging about our daily almost daily chore system (sometimes I just let them off the hook, but I should be more consistent, just so you know).  I thought the request was a wonderful idea!  I strongly believe that part of training up a child is to start them early with responsibilities around the house.  It teaches them life skills, how to not eat the bread of idleness (Prov. 31:27), and I have found that it helps them to appreciate the work that we as mothers do around the house.  (I found this out when I walked into the girls' bathroom and laid a hairbrush on the counter.  My oldest had just finished one of her daily chores, cleaning the bathroom counters.  She looked at me and said, "I just cleaned that off...") 

I am going to describe our chore system.  Maybe this will work for you, maybe you are doing something that works better and can share with the rest of us!  Now, keep in mind that I taught public school for 8 years...so my system is very "classroom-ish".

When I decided to stay home, I had to bring all of my classroom resources home.  When I did I found out just how many pocket charts I had...TONS to be exact!  So, I used one of the pocket charts I had for my "chore chart".  If you are not familiar with a pocket chart, it is a colored fabric backing with clear pockets on the front.  The one I am using is from Learning Resources and they are magnetic, which works great for sticking them on the refridgerator.  I have seen non-magnetic pocket charts on the dollar rack at Target as well. 



My oldest two girls are 3 and 5, so I wanted this to be something they could do independently while I am doing my own chores.  I made 'chore cards' for them.  Since this is a pocket chart and the chores are on cards, they can be alternated  and changed from day to day.  I wanted them to also have pictures on it.  This way, if they can't read what the chore is, they can see the picture to know exactly what to do.

The chore cards are:

• Make Bed
• Girls Bathroom Trash - They have to take the trash bag out, bring it to the kitchen trash, and replace with a clean bag.
• Bathroom Counters - They have to put away anything that has been left out on the counter.  I recently organized their bathroom, so now everything has either a specific drawer or a bin inside a drawer.  After they put everything away, they have to wipe it down with a baby wipe.  When I clean, I use cleaning wipes or spray cleaner, but they aren't allowed to use the strong stuff : )
• Books - They pick up the books off their bedroom floor and put them neatly on the shelf.
• TubToys - They have to go their bathtub and put any tub toys that were left out into the toy net.
• Doll House - They have designated plastic drawers that are labeled with pictures (Crazy, but it helps a lot!) that they are to put all of their doll house dolls and furniture in.
• Baby Dolls - Baby dolls also have their own bin to easily put away.
• Little Bathroom Trash - Same routine as above, just in the half bath.
• Barbies - I keep an old dresser drawer under the bunk beds.  I used paint pens and decorated and labeled it.  They know that all the Barbies and accessories go in this drawer.
• Kitchen Set - I also have plastic drawer with picture labels for all the kitchen set toys.

I have found that if everything has a designated spot it makes it easier for the little ones to put away things. 

Once they complete one chore they go to the chore chart and put a "You Did It!" card over the chore card, which sometimes motivates them to continue...

When all chores are done, they should have "You Did It" cards covering each of the chore cards.

I say should because, yes, I battle with a three year old that some days decides she doesn't want to do chores. 

Recently, I have started a "payment system", which is basically just a reward system.  We use 'Evans Bucks', which came from when I taught. 

They get one 'Evans Buck' for completing chores correctly for the day.  There are days that a little one doesn't get paid because they didn't do the work correctly or couldn't seem to get it done. 

The payment system did not get impletmented at the beginning and the chore chart worked fine.  I thought this would help them understand the questions they so frequently ask, "Why does Daddy have to work?  Why can't he stay home every day with us?"  It has shown them that you have to earn your money.  We let them decide what they would like to work for.  They chose things like frozen yogurt, a movie night, etc.  Then we set an amount for each reward and they have to earn it.

This is how we do chores in our home.  It helps for those little daily chores that need to be done, but sometimes I forget to do (i.e. wiping down the bathroom counters), as well as teaching them responsibilities. 

Feel free to share what you do in your home!