Monday, November 07, 2011

Chores...

One of the ways that homeschooling works for us is that we all do our part to keep the house --- livable.

This is a part of what our chore chart looks like. When I looked over this coming year, I realized that I needed some charts to handle all that we were taking on. We have been using this since August, and so far it is serving us pretty well.

Yellow means 'everyone does it', and each of the colors represent the 6, the 9, and the 12 yo. Our chores are on a 3 week rotation, at the kids request, so that someone doesn't ALWAYS have to do the laundry on Monday.

Our three main chores, next to taking care of their own rooms, are the bathroom, the dishwasher, and laundry. And yes, all three of them do all of those things.

We don't get to all the chores all the time, and that's okay. And that's how I know that This Chart is working for us - because it is guiding us, but not overwhelming and stressing us.

My kids wouldn't believe me, but this isn't just about my load being lighter. This is about helping them to know how to care for themselves and their stuff. And to know that just because 'most of their friends' are told they can't do it, shouldn't do it, won't do it - they CAN do it.

And yes, we may have more broken dishes per capita in our household and more wrinkles per county, but we spend a part of our day caring for the physical needs of our home - and our family.

1 comment:

Spring said...

I love to see other people's routines- it always gives me new ideas! :) My kids have certain a.m. and p.m. jobs, and I ask them at other times to do extra things, but I am working on increasing what they do to participate around the house- it's going well with the oldest... not so much with the youngest. :)