Chore Chart Adjustments

The summer has officially started.

Well, it actually started last week, but we took a week off.  Built forts and did as little as possible.

This week we're getting back into the swing of things and so, it was time to remake, redo, and rethink our chore charts.  

I still like our latest incarnation of chore charts and didn't want to do a complete overhaul.  I did want to add a few more chores and/or mix up the chores that were assigned, just a little bit.

In trying to decide which chores to add, I started to think about what skills I want my children to have; what they need to learn and work on so that one day, they can be more successful adults.  Which led me back to this book.

I've written about Merrilee's book before, it's pretty great.  In it, she gives her own personal list of what she wants her children to learn before moving out.  Things that will give them the independence they need to be the amazingest adults possible (she may not have used those exact words).  A while ago, I turned her list into one of my own.

I made it in excel, so I can adjust, adding and changing as my children grow.  Okay, it's less due to them growing and me changing my mind all the time.  It's five pages long and goes from ages three through sixteen.  

What does this have to do with chore charts?

Well, as I was percolating on how to adjust their charts for the summer, I looked through this list to get ideas.  

Then, I adjusted and came up with these.

Ben's and James' charts are pretty much the same.  They each have a list of chores they do every single day with one chore that changes daily so they get it done once a week (the row along the top).

Josh doesn't have any chores that change and his has pictures because he can't read yet (although we did our first reading lesson this week, he's ecstatic).

Makenna's chart is the most different.  The bottom half is just like the boys, a list of chores or items she needs to accomplish every day.

The top half lists a bunch of things she needs to get done once a week and because she's older and I'm trying to give her more freedom to set her own schedule (in very tiny baby steps), she gets to choose when to do them (as long as they're all done by the end of Saturday).  Which means she could do them all on Monday to have more time the rest of the week, or procrastinate until Saturday (which requires me to take a lot of deep breaths).

I used to print out a new chart every week, but one day (when my brain was working well), I decided I to print them once and put them in sheet protectors.  As you can see in the pictures above, they then use a dry erase marker to mark off each day and at the end of the week, we clean it off and they're ready for a whole new week.

If you'd like to use mine as templates to adjust for your own, you can download them from Google Docs.  I'm also sticking my Independence List on there if you're interested!!

Makenna
Ben/James
Josh
Independence!

Happy chores,
Leah