Clean house!

For once, my house is somewhat clean. My kitchen counter is still covered in canning stuff and some dishes, and seeing as how my expensive vacuum is getting fixed (grr) the floors have not been vacuumed, but at least things have been picked up and the kitchen floor has been mopped! I figured out a great way to get my kids to do their chores. Hopefully each week will be just as good.

So here's what I did:

For a long time now I have had a chore list of the generic chores: kitchen, bathrooms, tv room, front room then we rotate each week so that the kids wouldn't  have the same chore but every four weeks. This just wasn't working out, my kids could care less that their chores needed to be done everyday. So I decided to mix things up and just have then pick chores.

I sat down and wrote out on strips of paper different chores like kitchen floor, kitchen chairs, front room, tv room, upstairs bathroom, downstairs bathroom, closet, walls, Windows etc. I figured this would be easier on them than to try and tackle the whole job at once.

Friday is early out day from school for them, so Friday is perfect, since our Saturdays are pretty busy. They did very well today, I was impressed. I don't know if they liked the idea of having a random chore or not knowing what they would get or just doing something different, but they liked it.

I had them pick one and complete it and then I checked it and then they drew a second one and completed it and then I checked it. I still felt like I was having to show them each little thing that needed to be done, but that's where my explanations came in handy.

I also sat down with a notebook and wrote out each thing that needed to be done with each chore. That way they know and I don't have to tell them all the time. I am very excited about this new method and think it will work good. I also told them if they come tell me they are bored or don't know what to do, then they can pick a chore from the jar. Maybe they can start entertaining themselves more on their own. We will see. ;)