Let's Talk About Chores!

Chores.
The tasks around the house that just have to get done.
And how do we get them done in the midst of homeschooling
Or running your children to and from school?

I'm going to share with you how I do it.
Divide. Delegate. And conquer. =)

There are so many methods.
I will share some I have used in the past 
And also the method I am currently using.

For awhile I used this chore chart. 

I purchased the pdf here and loved filling it in with colorful pens.

This chore chart divides chores into categories:

Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semiannually, and annually.

After dividing up all of our household tasks, 

I assigned each task to a member of the family and gave him a color.

This made it easy for everyone to see which chore he was to do.

I framed it in a cheap frame.

We then were able to use a dry erase pen to mark off completed chores.

The frame was attached with Command strips 

And hung on our laundry room dryer.

This way it was low enough for even the youngest child.

I love charts but not all in my family love working off a chart like this.

So my next idea was to add a 'chore' row to their school work schedule.

Each school week my boys are given a schedule I created in Excel.

The days of the week are listed in the columns.

The class subjects are listed in the rows.

So under the class subjects I added a row for chores.

At the start of each week I filled out their schedules with their assignments and chores.

We have done the same chores now for years.

We have done certain chores on certain days for years. 

So currently I am handling it very simply:

I let them know what chore needs to be done at the beginning of the day.

They understand that they will be helping with some type of chore daily.

Since we are on our summer break,

I require chores to be done before they run off to play.

I have always shared with my boys that because we school together,

We must work together.

And when we work, shop, and learn together,

We can also play together.

But there is simply too much for me to do alone.

And therefore we must work as a team.

I also believe this communicates what it means to be a family.

So, those are a few ideas on how I practically get chores done. 

Next time I will share when I personally tackle bathrooms, laundry, and meal planning. =)

Eunora

For my previous post on our summer schedule, click here.