Morning Chore Chart
I have recently been talking to the kids about a Chore Chart. They got sooo excited!!! (weird, huh?) Actually, they feel very appreciated and valued when I ask them to do something for me. Sometimes they even argue about it, so I have to be careful to have 2 chores ready sometimes. Granted there are times they don't want to help, but strangely enough, those times are few and far between.
So our first idea was a chore list for the morning. We agreed upon:
Brush Teeth/Hair
Make Bed
Get Dressed
Put PJs in spot (laundry or under pillow)
Turn light off and close door
Then we talked about how we would remember that those were the morning chores. Of course, they said they could ask me, but I wanted them to be more self sufficient, even though I still help with teeth and hair. I saw a door knob chore chart and wanted to make one. I want laminate it and then cut a slit, so that it hangs from the door knob in their room. This is my first draft.
We'll see how this goes. I look forward to referencing their own door knob when they ask if they can have breakfast yet. :-)
Putting Away Laundry
Another chore they help with is putting away their own laundry. Here are our family steps.
Step 1: When a laundry basket gets full, it is time to put it in the wash, regardless of the day of the week. Once washed, I bring it upstairs to my room and dump it on my bed.
Step 2: I then sort it into piles: socks, underwear, pj's, pants, shorts and shirts.
Step 3: My son then distributes each pile to its own place. Here is his bottom dresser drawer with baskets to hold socks, underwear and pi's.
Step 4: Linens get put in his under the bed storage drawer in sections for flat sheets, fitted sheets, pillow cases and blankets. As you can see in the photo, I use a folded shower curtain tucked under the mattress to save myself/my son from having to change the fitted sheet so often.
Step 5: He puts his shorts in a shorts drawer with no real order, but his pants go in his pants drawer separated by school/church pants and his "soft" play around pants into the separated basket.
Step 5: He places his shirts in a pile on his desk. He is only 6, so I normally hang up his shirts while he is putting away everything else. As you can see, I have not had "enough time" in the past couple of laundry days to get all the shirts hung up. If ANY shirt is inside out, I put them back into a pile on the desk and let him know he has shirts to "right-side out." Let's just say, that number has decreased a lot.
Step 6: Both of my kids absolutely adore pretending and dressing up in costumes. I love it. Sometimes these costumes need to be washed, so that becomes an additional put-away pile when I sort. They both have wide, plastic Sterilite drawers for their costumes. They are labeled with masking tape using words, but I am debating over cutting out pictures from a magazine to have pictorial labels. So far, they have pretty much memorized where MOST of the stuff goes. Pictures would make it easier for clean up time when friends are over to play.
Step 7: Replace the empty hamper in the bedroom, and wait for it to fill up again. I have learned that laundry is way less overwhelming if it is done more often with smaller loads.
I have always sorted laundry into piles to make it easier for me. When the kids were even younger, I made it a game to see if they knew where their socks went, etc. Their responsibility level in this laundry chore has grown and will continue to do so. I look forward to them WASHING their own, as well.
I would love to come up with an overall chore chart that is able to be edited as they grow older and we move.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful week.
~hurley
