Posted in Homemaking
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It's been fully two weeks since we started trying to teach some new chores. Here's what we're doing: Every day, J cleans the kids' bathroom with a lysol wipe. O does the downstairs bathroom. M does light switches/doorknobs. J is responsible to empty the dishwasher and put away what he can reach, no matter how many times it is run (about 5-6 times per week.) Every night at dinner O scrapes the plates and puts the dishes by the dishwasher to be loaded. M uses the shark vacuum to clean the floor. Additionally, M helps me do the laundry (mostly because she likes to.) Tuesdays, the boys have to put away their laundry. Wednesdays, the boys clean their room (one area each week, modeled on Large Family Logistics' Children's Bedroom Management Plan). M puts her laundry away. Thursdays, we empty all the trash, refill liners, and take the trash out. Friday, the boys mop the floor together and M "cleans" the windows. Saturday, J empties the van of all its garbage, and O restocks our church bag. OK, so how is it going? Well, the dishwasher and dinner time routine is going well. The kids like their weekly Tues-Friday chores. We're not good about the Saturday routine... maybe because there IS no routine on Saturdays-- Daddy's home, and we have no set schedule. We're doing so-so on the bathroom cleaning. (They do it, but it's not very clean.) So it's an improvement. Because they are cleaning, I'm more motivated to clean as well. The house is better, and they've learned some new skills. I like that we're doing a month of the SAME chore for each child to learn it well. In November, I'll change the dinner-time chores, and once each child has mastered all three chores (dishwasher, clear table, & vacuum) we will add some new ones. Or at least, that's the plan-- and we know what happens to our best-laid plans! |
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