I have 6 kids. Yes, I am a stay at home mom, but I am not a maid. I have no intention of cleaning up after 7 other people all the time. One way I stay organized with my family is by having my kids do chores. My kids are 1-12, but only the older four have chores.
A few reasons why my kids do chores:
- Builds confidence- Almost every week someone tells me “I can’t do it, can you help me?” Last week it was my 6-year-old with the garbage today it was my 11-year-old with the dishes. We always try to help them problem solve, but don’t swoop in and handle it. They usually use innovative thinking and they’re so proud of themselves when it’s accomplished.
- Teaches kids responsibility and self-reliance- If you miss out on a fun activity or screen time because your chore isn’t done, that no one’s fault but their own. They are learning how to rely on themselves and manage their time.
- Teach life-skills- Have you ever had a roommate who can’t take care of themselves. They’re messy, they can’t cook or clean? It isn’t fun. They need basic life skills to take care of themselves when they leave my house.
- Helps build a strong work ethic- My 6-year-old takes out the garbage and recycling alone, my 9 year old deep cleans the bathroom. They are learning to work hard and do hard things.
- Teaches problem-solving- The other day my son was crying about how he couldn’t take out the garbage. I gently assured him he could handle it. So he did. He took out the garbage bag, tied it up, and placed it in our recycling bin, so he could carry it out at one time. It made him so proud to tell me how he decided to handle it. He solved his own problem.
I have a simple magnetic dry erase calendar that we use for our chore chart. It is simple and we’ve had it for over a year and it’s going strong. I use wet-erase markers so it can’t be easily wiped off.
The way we organize our chore chart is simple, each child has a color and they switch chores each week.
You start new chores on Monday and they continue through the following Sunday.
Every Saturday we do a deeper clean. On days when the house has gotten really messy (like today), I will clean most of the chores before they get home. That way they just need to do some maintenance on them. I also sometimes do them all while they’re at school, because as wonderful as it is to have kids have chores, it’s also hard to sit back and let them try and do them on their own. I would rather get them done quickly. It’s called balance.
Our chores will differ from yours, but the basics can remain the same. I have included the links to some printable chore charts. You can print them out and laminate them, or use a page protector and just erase it weekly.
Below I have included the tasks my children do in our home. Yes, even the youngest does these. Sometimes he gets a little direction when it’s been a rough day.
Do your kids do chores? Meet me in the Instagram comments!
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