I tried a few days ago to use the app on my phone to write a blog post but I never could get it to upload. It wasn't a very long post, anyway--just a few words about the Luper Family Reunion and some pictures. I'm not crazy about typing on a phone anyway. So at the end of this post I'm going to just add some of the best pictures, even though I already put them on Facebook.
But this post is about our chore chart. I have resisted a chore chart for years because I don't like to put energy into making charts that will just fall by the wayside. I've seen my mom and other moms try chore charts, and they just didn't seem to last very long. So our way of doing chores was that every day, I would assign jobs, and then we'd do them, and if one child was finished with their job before another job I'd assign them to help another child until everything was cleaned. Usually I chose the dishes. The kids would usually try to call their favorite jobs (or should I say "least hated" jobs) first, to avoid having to help in the kitchen. I usually gave the younger kids easier jobs, like having Timothy move over the laundry from the washer to the dryer.
Of course, like all kids everywhere, my kids complained about doing chores. They all seemed to be under the impression that they were overworked and had to do everything. If you would ask any of my kids whose turn it was to wash dishes, they would all claim that they had done them last, even though I almost always chose that job for myself.
About three or four weeks ago, I finally decided to make a simple chore chart. I divided the daily tasks into seven jobs. Then I rotated everyone through the list on a daily basis, so that each day a different person would do each job. Erick and I share a job, because sometimes he is home and sometimes I am, and if we are both home we just do an extra good job at our job. It looks like this:
Amazingly, this has worked extremely well. Everyone loves it. The older kids love it because they only have to wash dishes one day a week. Everybody knows that it is completely fair because everyone has the same amount of work. I never have to listen to anyone argue over whose turn it is to do anything. At the very first, we had a couple of arguments over whose job it was to clean up a mess that encroached on someone else's area, such as crumbs from the countertop knocked onto the floor, but after that the arguments died down. Nobody complains if the job load is uneven one day because they know that their day is coming when they get the easy task. I love it because I always know who to hold responsible for something. If laundry needs to be moved over, I can easily check the chart and see whose day it is. If the table needs to be cleaned off, I just check the chart and call that person in to clean it off.
I expected the younger ones to complain because they have to do more work than they are used to, but they even seem to like it. Timothy enjoys being treated as a bigger kid and getting to do dishes instead of always moving laundry over. Sometimes the younger ones don't do as good of a job at something, but since all the jobs are rotated, that means I can do a thorough job at it when it gets to my day. Plus, I can see that something wasn't done well and call that child back to redo it if necessary.
The older I get, the more I am finding that schedules are very handy. I didn't used to use any sort of schedule for anything because I thought they were a waste of time that nobody ever followed. I guess if it's kept simple enough, then we can follow them!
Okay, now for some pictures of the Luper Family Reunion...
...on the other hand, it might be easier to try it from my phone again, since that's where they all are, so hang on and I will try to get them up in a bit. Maybe I can even figure out how to publish the post I made that didn't upload right.
