Tip - Chore Charts
I recently went to a parenting night held by our local school board. It was called “Raising Children of Character: 10 Principles” by Dr. Thomas Lickona and it was absolutely outstanding!! If you have kids, I highly recommend checking out some of his books, or his website as they are FILLED with amazing parenting advice. This leads me to one of his points about character building through hard work. Now we are back to ORGANIZING!! Dr. Lickona recommended that each child in the house works, independent of any monetary reward (allowance), are to do one chore per year of age. I thought this was fantastic and the perfect way of teaching the kids to help around the house, as well as helping me let go! I could pick things that wouldn’t take very long and that I was confident they could do well enough that I could live with it!
I spent some time today making a chore chart for my kids and bought 1000 stickers at the dollar store last night so we should be all set. While I was at it, I made a list of most of things I also need to make sure I am doing on a daily basis, and funny enough, there were just as many things on my list as how old I am!! I can’t wait to get the kids started on their own habits tomorrow, as well as remembering all the things I want to do in the order in which they need to be done! I hope you take the time to look at Dr. Lickona’s site, or just make a chore chart for yourself (no stickers needed for you unless you really, really want them!), for your kids. You will soon all be working together for the goal of a tidy house while teaching your kids some great principles while you are at it. WIN WIN!! Good luck.
Additionally here is a site that offers examples of age appropriate chores to help spark your chore chart mania: Ideas for age appropriate chores
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I love the chore chart ideas for my 5-yr-old, since it works in perfectly with our existing “marbles in a jar” reward system AND I’d love a little more help around here! After clicking the link above, I found a wonderful site that lets you customize a chore chart for your child.
http://www.housekeeping.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=housekeeping&cdn=homegarden&tm=3&f=10&su=p284.8.150.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.dltk-cards.com/chart/
I added the number of marbles he will receive for each completed chore (make his bed, put away clean clothes, set the table, etc.). Thanks for the great ideas!
April 24th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
[…] Chore Charts […]
April 25th, 2008 at 8:17 am
We have used chore charts and we have abandoned chore charts on different occasions. I think they only work when the mommy is consistent. I am considering starting again but I really don’t want to list my potentially 35 chores. I have however seen one that i might be interested in implementing here
April 29th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I love the link about what chores are appropriate for what ages. Very helpful, thank you.