CHORES!

     This week I decided to make the girls do chores.  I know, late start but what can you do?  I felt that if I have a strict schedule of how we spend our days, they will go a little bit smoother.

     On the chore chart I included everything so that it can become a habit for their life. 

I included the first letter in each of their names for each day of the week so I know who did what chore. At the end of the week (today) I will add up the totals in each line and pay them in chore bucks and school bucks.  Check out this link for free printable behavior charts.com  http://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com/behavior_bucks.htm

This is where I got the bucks to pay them for their chores and school work.

Here we see the room of the day chart. 

 I have all of the girls help me clean 1 room each day really well. I do a general clean of the rest of the house. The purpose of this is to teach the girls how to maintain a home. They are learning how to cook, clean, sew, bake, craft, shop for a household, maintain excellent hygiene, and many more life skills. 

For every chore completed at the end of the week they will receive 1 chore buck, and for every assignment completed 1 homework buck.  My husband and I have decided to assign a value of 10 cents per buck earned, and at the end of the month they will have the option to exchange chore bucks in for real money at 10 cents on the dollar.  At this point we will teach them how to handle their money.  maybe instituting a 20% saving, 80% doing whatever they want to policy. We haven't thought that far ahead yet.

It is taking longer to get the house clean each day having the girls help me, because I am teaching them how to do each item on the list.  They will argue over who gets to vacuum or wash the TV with Windex.  The day we did the living room as a family I gave my two youngest (3 and 5) a microfiber cloth and set them loose on the living room.  They dusted everything, including the bottom of the leather sofa cushions! My oldest two (10 and 11) decided there wasn't enough on my list and included washing the windows and even tried to move on to the kitchen too.

They all run to check the chore chart to see if there is anything else they can do for the day.  I keep a copy hanging on the fridge for them to mark off each chore as they do it so the above photo isn't correct.  I have had the girls ask me if they can take the garbage out, and offering to help me with dinner.  They no longer groan when I ask them to help clean my youngest's bedroom because they get to check off the "picked up toys" box.

So although chores are causing more work for me, I am teaching the girls valuable lessons and eventually I won't have to directly supervise everything they are doing.