Saturday, April 9, 2011

Unfolding a Chore Chart

Years ago I was trying to find some easy way to assign chores to my three children.  I came up with the following idea:

I purchased the wooden board at a local craft shop and the hooks and metal tags at Wal-Mart.  I just hand screwed the hooks into the wood and wrote one chore on each of the tags.  I separated the board into 3 sections, one for each of my children, and put their initials in the blocks on the left side.  They each have 5 hooks for a maximum of 5 chores a day.  The far right hook is where they put the tags once they have completed the chores for the day. 

Most days I do not give them 5 chores.  It will usually depend on the state of my house and how long it has been since those things have been done.  I used to try to give age-appropriate chores to Paige when she was younger, but she is capable of doing all of the chores now.  I need to buy new tags so that I can update the chores and add new ones since the kids are older than when I started this.  They can now do things like load the dishwasher or clean the inside of the refrigerator.

Some days I let the kids pick their own chores, within reason.  They even like to switch chores sometimes, which I will let them do from time to time.  So long as it gets done, I don't usually care who does it.  I have been quite lazy lately with giving them any chores besides unloading the dishwasher and gathering the garbage.  Maybe this will be the impetus I need to get them busy again.

I had a friend tell me I should sell these.  That is a great idea, but I am giving away all my secrets here on my blog.  However, if you would like me to make you one, I can do that.  Just let me know.

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