Weaver Classroom

Chores For theWhole Family

Five Principles to Live By:

1. Teach Your Children Chore Responsibility

One of the best things you can teach children is teamwork in the home, and chores are one of the best places to begin.

2. Be Consistent!

Develop good habits and be consistent with daily maintenance of your home, and you should never be overwhelmed.

3. Create a Master Chore List

It is much easier to accomplish something, if you have know what the mountain you need to climb looks like.

4. Schedule a Chore Time Daily

If you have a time set aside to work on chores, you are more likely to do it.

5. Instruct and Inspect the Chores

Taking time to train children how to do chore will save you time in the long run. Don’t forget to inspect the chores as well.

6. Enjoy the Process and All the Character Traits Your Kids will learn

Participation in chores will help your children become team players, hard workers, problem solvers, effective time managers, contributors, good spouses and employees. J

Practical Tools:

Develop a Master Chore List (Ideas taken from Managers of Their Home by Steve and Teri Maxwell)

Step 1: Use Chore Worksheet and make a comprehensive list of all the chores you would like done, include chore description, time needed, age of child able to do chore, and how often you would like chore done.

Step 2: Assign the Chores to a Specific person to be done on a specific day. Use Chore Worksheet.

Step 3: Post the assigned chores in a place you can see easily

Create a Schedule That Has a Daily Chore Time

TIPS FOR SETTING UP A SCHEDULE

1. Write down all of your activities that you would like to do during the day, including things like laundry, chores, school, shopping, sleep, etc.

2. Next to each activity write down how long you think it will take. If you’re not sure, time yourself. The OLS attendance page gives the time they think each lesson should take. The amount of time you take may be different.

3. Then add up that time and see if it is more than, equal to or even less than, 24 hrs. If it is more than 24 hrs than you have too much on you schedule, unless you can figure out how to make the days longer. J

4. Next, decide what time of day is best for each activity and fill in worksheet.

5. Now, you are ready to fill in your schedule. You can make your own table using excel or table maker in Microsoft Word, or you can write it by hand.

Hints:

1. Do not try to do too much in a designated time period.

2. Be flexible. Adjust your schedule when you need to.

3. Be sensitive to your family. If they need you more, be available and schedule time in with each member.

4. Make sure you have time with little ones in the morning.

5. Delegate tasks such as chores, reading to younger siblings, studying for spelling tests, meals, etc.

6. If the schedule is not working, change it.

7. Make sure you schedule in fun times and breaks. We all do better with times of refreshment.

8. Create a list of Daily activities.

9. Create a list of Weekly activities.

10. Incorporate these into schedule by designating a time for daily and weekly activities.

11. Implement your schedule gradually.

12. Get up at a scheduled time every day and go to bed at a scheduled time everyday if at all possible.

13. Take time to teach your children how to get things done in a timely fashion.

14. Post your schedule on the refrigerator or have it a convenient place.

15. Be good time managers. Figure out what is a time waster in your home and get rid of it. Ex. TV, looking for things, talking on the phone.

16. Don’t answer the phone when you are in the middle of activities. Call people back on your time table.

Here is an example of a weekly schedule for certain chores:

Monday-Pay Bills

Tuesday-Errands

Wednesday-Water Plants

Thursday-Make Phone Calls

Friday-Correspondence and To Do List

Saturday-Yard Work, garage

Sunday-Relax

Make sure you keep an ongoing list of errands that you need to do on your desk, the refrigerator, or another convenient place. Keep your bills in the same place, so they are easy to pay. Keep an ongoing TO DO List of things that you can not quite get to, but will have time on your designated day.

Develop a Training Program For Each Chore

Step 1-Have a time to train at the beginning of chore time.

Step 2-Demonstrate how to do the chore.

Step 3-Have your children do the chore after you show them.

Step 4-Encourage and Re-instruct them.

Step 5-Have them do the chore, while you observe.

Step 6-Check them off on that chore when they are ready to do it on their own.

Step 7-Inspect the chore for the first month or so and then on occasion after that.

Provide Incentives For Your Children, Such As, Allowance

Develop an allowance program that your family agrees upon. Make sure it is not too complicated, but very easy to keep track of.

Web sites:

Allowance and Money: