For the past five years of homeschooling three kids, chores
were just a part of our school day, our “Life Skills” time. Since my workforce has dwindled to two
this year, I needed to come up with another system: enter Family Chore
Day.
The way it works is this: Saturday morning, after a nice
leisurely breakfast, I write everyone’s name on our white board, along with
their chores. When someone finishes,
I erase their whole chore list and put one more item under their name: go play
and have fun!
I appreciate many things about this new system. First of all, we are all working
together which brings a nice sense of community. Secondly, we can really knock out a lot of work in a short
amount of time! This Saturday we
cleaned up after our dogs, mowed both lawns, swept our patio, sorted and washed
the family laundry, cleaned both bathrooms, vacuumed, cleaned our French doors,
dusted the living room and entry way, swept and mopped floors, did a big clean
of the guinea pig hutch and all three kids practiced piano! We started work at 10:30am and were
done and eating lunch by 1:30pm.
The longer I am a Mama, the more I appreciate the different
seasons in this parenting journey.
So far, the Family Chore Day is a positive part of this new and
different season.
