Age-Appropriate Chore Charts
HI! It’s me again! Rabia from http://californiawithkids.com/tag/with-kids/ The Liebers, guest posting for Lydia. Today it’s about chore charts. At my house we all pretty much hate chores. Please tell me your house is like that too. I’ve tried lots of different ways to make chores fun for myself and for my kids (9, 5, and 3). There are a few things that have worked for us and I’d like to share one of those with you.
Our Chore Charts–I love these because they are easy to make and easy to keep up with. Here’s what I did (and then I tell you another, easier way): I sat down and thought out all the chores that I wanted my kids to do and made a list. Then I went into Word and found clip art pictures that went along with those chores. The chores I chose for my kids are: collecting the trash (bringing individuals cans to the kitchen so I can dump them all into the big can), taking out the recycling, cleaning their room, emptying the dishwasher, laundry (it’s there twice), and a “vacation” day that they don’t have to do a chore.
I printed out the chore cards as well as a strip with the days of the week on it. I laminated these at work and cut everything out. When I laminated them I left a large margin on each end because I ended up folding a clear strip of lamination over the days of the week, essentially making a pocket. The margin on top of the chore cards makes a little handle to move the strips with.
If you wanted to do this in a less complicated manner, you could use a strip of cardstock with the days of the week and paperclips to hold the chores in place. Or glue clothespins to a wooden ruler. That would be cute too! The important part is that the chore cards are easy to move around, because the next part is what makes it fun for my kids.
On Sunday afternoons, my two older kids get out their chore charts and sit on the floor in the living room and rearrange them. They get to pick which days they will do which chores. Frances (9) has figured out that Thursdays are a good day for “vacation” because she has violin and ballet on those days. Henry tries to put laundry days back to back in the hopes that I won’t have time to fold any more for him to put away the second day! The only rule is that they can’t both put trash or recycling on the same day because those usually need to be done twice a week.
During the week when we get home for the day, they are responsible for putting away their lunchboxes and backpacks and then doing the chore that THEY CHOSE. That’s important for your wording! I always remind them to “go see what chore they picked.” I think giving them freedom to choose when to do which chores makes it easier and more fun for them. Then the next week they can put their chores on different days.
Just a few notes: While Frances and Henry essentially have the same chores; I expect different things from them. Frances, for example, can empty almost the entire dishwasher by herself. She can’t put the plates away, so she stacks them on the door of the dishwasher and I put them away. Henry, on the other hand, can’t reach as far as she can. He knows it’s his job to put away everything he can reach and leave the rest for me.
The bonus of this system is that Benjamin likes watching his siblings do their chores and he pitches in to help out sometimes. He’s almost ready for his own chart (with some different chores on it, like feeding the cat) and I think he’ll be excited when he gets one.
One other thing that I’ll throw out there is this: Sometimes I don’t make the kids put away their own laundry. I ask them to put away someone else’s. They don’t seem to mind because it’s the same amount of work, and it shows that as a family we take care of each other and help each other out.
If you think you might want to make chore charts for your own kids, I’d love to hear how they turn out! And if you want some suggestions, here are some ideas for what kinds of things kids can do at different ages:
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