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Age Groups:
Toddlers love to imitate those around them. Use this to
your advantage by showing them how to put things away or
how to fold socks. Make it a game and they will usually
join right in. Things won’t always be done the "right"
way, but remember, they are trying.
Help your kids help you. Sometimes you
may need to make some adjustments so your kids can help.
For example, If you want your toddlers and preschoolers
to help set the table, you might need to invest in plastic
or melamine dishes that your young one can carry to the
table without threat of breaking.
"My two-year-old has broken a few dishes
because he wanted to help set the table," Lori Garcia
(Shoal Creek Valley Branch, Liberty Missouri Stake, USA)
said. "I was thrilled to find melamine dishes that
he couldn't break. My friend told me about them. They were
in the patio and lawn section to be used for outdoor eating.
They work perfectly!"
Older children who are not used to helping
out around the house will be a lot more reluctant to begin
unless you approach the matter in the right way. Hold a
family meeting so that everyone will be involved in the
decisions you are making. Present the problem and explain
that you would like more help around the house. After all,
they, the children, live there too. Explain that there will
be basic chores that everyone will need to do. This may
include keeping bedrooms picked up, making their own beds
and putting away their dirty clothes. Then, as a family,
decide on what the other chores need to be around the house.
All of these decisions are dependent on your own personal
household.
Necessary Chores:
Taking out the garbage, emptying the dishwasher, sweeping
the floor, setting the table are good places to start. Don’t
give chores out just to keep your children busy. Make sure
that there are reasons that the jobs need to be done. Explain
to your children why each job needs to be done and how these
jobs help out the family as a whole.
After you have decided on the chores, have
the children pick one that may interest them the most. You
understand your children like no other person can. You will
know what types of chores your children may take to best. One
child may actually enjoy folding the clothes while another
would rather mow the lawn. Stop laughing! It is true! If
a child enjoys some part of the chore it will make it less
like a chore.
Sometimes variety is the key. Rotating chores
may keep boredom away. It also helps distribute the work
load evenly. No one likes having the hardest job each week.
If you assign one child the difficult job of scrubbing the
filthy garage floor each week, while another gets to dust
the living room coffee table, the first child might resent
his/her sibling's lesser chore.
Some families rotate less often...they would
rotate their chores annually. This might not work for you,
but this family enjoyed doing their one chore for the entire
year because they said they were able to get really good
at it. Children who's chore was vacuuming and dusting were
happy that year, while other children whose year it was
to clean the toilets, were less thrilled. This might not
work for you, but it did for them. Find what works best
for your family.
Be consistent with your cleaning. Pick a day
or time of day when your family cleans and picks up the
house. This can be a daily thing, for example, around bedtime
everyone in the family could do a walk-through of the house
to ensure toys and put away, dirty dishes are taken to the
kitchen and rinsed, dirty clothes are put in the hamper.
You could reserve more heavy-duty tasks to do once a week.
You could pick Saturday mornings as your "cleaning time"
and let each family member know that playtime, going out
with friends, etc., will not start until the weekly chores
have been done. Doing them together will make your family
feel more unified and ensure that all chores get done in
a timely manner.
Make cleaning fun. Turn on the stereo or put
on a favorite CD as you work. Kids love music---especially
your teens---let them chose the music (as long as it's appropriate)
and who knows, they might actually enjoy themselves lip-sinking
to N'Sync while they scrub the bathroom tub.
Be creative with your chores. As goofy as
it sounds, one of our Mormonchic editors and her family
used to pretend they were hosts of "Home Improvement" shows
while they cleaned (especially in the bathroom). (As long
as your kids don't get too carried away) She and her sister
would look into the bathroom mirror and explain to the "television
audience" the best way to clean the chrome on the facet.
They had a good time while they cleaned.
Consequences and Rewards:
Now the next step will be deciding what will happen if the
chores are not done. Make sure the children help in making
this decision. This way they will be fully aware of the
consequences because they had a say in creating them.
Some ideas for consequences would be: no TV,
no computer, no telephone, etc. This all depends on
your own lifestyles. You will be surprised at how interesting
your children’s answers to this will be. They may even think
of some that you never would have thought of.
If you plan on paying them allowance for the
chores done, then part of the consequences could be less
allowance or even no allowances until the work is done.
After the consequence phase, you will need
to decide what the reward system will be. Allowance is one
of the most common forms of chore rewards. There are also
many other options. Is there a family trip that you are
saving for? Maybe a big pickle jar could be used to save
up for the trip using the earnings from daily chores; or,
each chore done could be worth a token. These tokens could
then be cashed in for a special family event, TV time, computer
time, or special treats.
If you decide to try the token system, you
will need to set up a chart to show what each amount of
tokens is worth. Five tokens may equal a trip to the ice
cream store. Forty tokens may equal dinner and a movie with
dad. Our family collected baby food lids and then decorated
them for our tokens. Other items to use could be milk or
water jug lids, popsicle sticks, marbles, or create your
own out of cardstock.
Make
Your Own Chore Charts:
After the chores have been picked, consequences made, and
reward system decided upon, you will need a way to keep
track of the chores. There are many different inventive
chore charts around. A simple list made up each week and
tacked up on the fridge is one way.
A chore wheel made from a paper circle the
size of a dinner plate and a smaller circle of paper is
a good way to keep track of chores that need to be rotated.
On the larger paper circle make sections for each chore
and write the chore’s name in the sections. Then on the
smaller piece of paper write the name of each child. Attach
the smaller circle in the middle of the larger circle with
a paper fastener so that it can move freely. Now, just move
the smaller wheel everyday or each week so that the chores
can be rotated easily.
Print This Chore Chart:
Print this chore chart out designed
specifically for you by Mormonchic.com. (Note:
It's in PDF format, so you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader
to view and print it.) >
Get Acrobat Reader (free!)
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