Friday, August 15, 2014

Favorite words

Favorite words that make my kids happy or excited include:

Cousins
Ice Cream
Legos
Anything bacon
Sleepover
Minecraft
Nexus
Netflix

The Ramblin' On household has been trying a new thing for the past two months and although it's not a new concept, we've just formalized it on paper.

A chore chart.

Nothing fancy.

On the list are simple tasks like brush your teeth and changing your clothes for the day for personal hygiene. Other stuff like empty dishwasher, clean/pick-up living room and entry way, collect all laundry and take it down to laundry room.  Most importantly, read for 20 minutes.

Can all be done in an hour or less.  The boys don't earn money for doing this.

The take away message of the chore charts are three-fold: 1) I don't have to nag at them to get stuff done 2) Gives them a focus each day of what's expected of them 3) They have a better understanding of being a productive member of our home.

This has made them realize how much needs to be done each day that used to be mom's responsibility.

The favorite words up above happens when chores are done...The lovely and I are more likely to say yes to buying/doing things that cost money when they are helpful.

They can turn in their week's chore sheet for a small reward i.e. candy or a trip to dollar scoop ice cream.  Or build it up and earn an hour of fun activity like bowling.

What does your household do to manage/tame the household duties?