Kids and Chores

We have done many different things as far as chores over the years including cleaning as a group, chore charts, pick a chore and so on. Different methods for different stages, the group cleaning worked well when they were all little. We would all be in the same room cleaning together, and this was a great way to get them to help clean.

 Then we did chore charts as they were able to do things on their own, each child had  jobs to do and most of them could be done on their own. Then we tried pick a chore , that lasted the shortest amount of time to many not fairs on picking the chores.

Today with the kids all having crazy schedules and never knowing really to far ahead of time who will be home when, who is going to have a ton of homework, and so on. We have gone to a very different method of chores, the mom method. What I do is many times a day I look at what needs to be done, who is around to do it, and I assign the chore. For example it's after school and 3 kids are home, I might ask Nolan to unload the dishwasher ( he is very good at this chore and needs no help), Kathryn to clean the upstairs bathroom, and Aidan to sweep the stairs.

Then lets say that Aidan has to be somewhere after dinner, so I will not be home to supervise dinner chores. So that night Aidan gets set table, Nolan gets load dishwasher, Conner gets trash and sweep, Kathryn gets table, and Sarah has put away leftovers and kitchen counters. I pick the best kid for the job, a night I will be home I might have Kathryn load the dishwasher as she still needs help on doing it right.

 On weekends or days the kids are home I will assign rooms to clean and time to have it done. For example Nolan- living room and dining room, Conner - outside chore, Kathryn - bathroom, Sarah- Kitchen. Each child is responsible for keeping their room clean, and Conner and Sarah do their own laundry, Nolan and Kathryn will be doing there own soon.

The one thing I do have on my to-get list to make this method easier is a white board for the kitchen. That way when something is assigned it's right there in black and white.

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