A Tip for Tuesday - Chore Boards

When our kids keep up with their chores and responsibilities, they earn privileges such as later bedtime, an extra soda, a pack of gum, extra screen time, that kind of thing.

Trouble is, with eleventybillion kids in this family, and about three brain cells left, I lose track pretty quickly of who's earned what, and who has what chores, and who woke up late and who's taking this Friday's soda next Tuesday.

So we use chore boards.

Each kid has a small dry erase board on the fridge. Down the left-hand column are all their daily responsibilities, and a place for their weekly rotating chores (on a magnet that I can move from one board to the next each week).

Lets me keep track of things like getting up on time, getting themselves ready for school (including remembering to pack their lunch, sneakers if it's gym day, homework, etc), treating others respectfully, doing their homework, doing their chores, you know, kid work.

Marks are tallied, privileges are earned, negotiations are made.

In our house, we have five major rotating chores:
dishwasher (empty once or twice a day)
pets and trash (feeding pets, taking out trash and recycling)
barn (taking Annabelle to the barn every night, letting her out in morning)
dinner helper (helps make dinner)
table helper (sets and clears table, puts away leftovers, washes non-d/w items)

We also have a million other chores that are assigned at random, and are not included in the weekly rotating chores. Things like cutting the grass, pulling weeds, running the vacuum, straightening up as needed. We just count those as "extras".

Since we have six kids, that means one of them gets a "star of the week" free pass. Much coveted.



So I like chore boards. Helps shape them up, makes clear my expectations, and lets them earn rewards for a job well done.

Of course, if you have some old dry erase boards that need repurposing, you can use my trick I posted here last week.

Have fun creating your own!






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In case you didn't know it, I'm like the queen of blog-hoppin' lately. It's kind of like square dancing but without the dated outfits, smelly gym, and elderly caller.

Here's the schedule I keep:
Monday: Homestead Revival's Barn Hop
Tuesday: Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday
and Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up
Wednesday: My Life and Kids Finding the Funny
Thursday: A Rural Journal's Rural Thursday Blog Hop
Friday: Deborah Jean's Dandelion House's Farmgirl Friday
Saturday: Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop and Country Momma Cooks Saturday Link-Up

Since today is Tuesday, that means I'm linking my post "Beulah as Biographer" with Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up, and my post "Mother of the Year Award" with Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday


Come join the fun!