Children's Chores Made EasIER

Kari Patterson > My name is Mommy > Children's Chores Made EasIER
My name is Mommy9 Comments0

Dutch's Work Cards

(EDIT at 11am on Monday morning: Seeing that I had to spend 2 extra hours this morning working on a little boy’s poor attitude regarding chores, I propose the title changing to Children’s Chores Made EasIER. Nothing’s easy about children and chores but this does truly help! 🙂

I think that the Letter Lessons post was the last time I wrote something on what works for us in parenting. 

That was more than 2 years ago. Hmmm.

(I guess the Picture Plan was tossed in there this year too.)

At any rate, ya’ll know that in our world it’s lots of trial and also a lot of error, and occasionally we strike it rich and find something that works.  Really works.

Sound the alarm, we found one more thing. 

Chore Cards.

Dutch's Work Cards

I know, nothing revolutionary. Perhaps ya’ll already do this. But for me this has proven a phenomenal way to tie together homeschooling, chores, and a daily, predictable, regular routine that keeps us all moving forward (and keeps Mama sane!).

Here was the dilemma: A just-turned-5-year-old-boy who wants to play Legos all day long and not lift a finger to do school or chores if I let him have this way. (Heidi on the other hand would like to do ALL our chores for us if we let her. That little girl’s a worker!) Every day it was a battle all afresh to read and write and make our beds.

Enter chore cards. We began more than a month ago and I love it. The new simple guideline is that we don’t play until the stack of cards is complete. Each morning they simply sit at his place at the breakfast table, and as each one’s complete he puts them away.

His responsibility.

Yes, most of them are things I need to help him with, but it still puts the burden of responsibility on him, not me. For us, we chose 12 simple things we do each day, and I wrote them in simple words that he can read. It usually takes from 8-10am to do all 12 (sometimes shorter) and then he has the rest of the day free. DONE.

Dutch’s Cards:

  1. Dish in sink. (this one’s a freebie since he always takes his breakfast dish in automatically anyway.)
  2. Get dressed.
  3. Make bed.
  4. Brush and floss.
  5. Trash down. (Taking trash down to the carport.)
  6. Verses. (Recites his Bible memory verses)
  7. Bob Books (Reads 3-4 of his most recent books.)
  8. Write. (Does whatever writing assignment I give him.)
  9. Math. (Usually this is something around the house–counting doorknobs, subtracting one room’s # of something from another room’s … “life math”)
  10. Bible. (I read from the Gospel Story Bible and we do the discussion questions and pray about what we learned.)
  11. Mom Read. (I read from the DK Book of Knowledge, it covers all kinds of science and history topics. I skip the stupid parts that refer to evolution. 🙂
  12. “Is there anything else?” (This is my wild-card for any other occasional-chores that need to be done: Laundry put away, Legos picked up, wood brought up from downstairs, etc.)
And then he’s free! The thing I love is that it keeps me accountable to all of these things (and makes sure that I make my bed and brush my teeth!), and gives us regular routine and rhythm. The dawdling-factor is diminished since there’s the included incentive of getting to play when he’s done. And, I love that by 10am we’ve crossed all the “biggies” off our list and even if the whole day falls apart at least we’ve gotten this much done.
For us, it works. And, might I add, kids might not be the only ones who need chore cards.  Just sayin’ …
{Thanks for reading. }

9 thoughts on “Children's Chores Made EasIER”

  1. I’m sitting here wondering how much of a shock it would be to Hudson’s system if I started him on chore cards tomorrow morning? Hehe. He already helps me around the house while I do whatever needs to be done, but he’s not always responsible for his own chores (other than making sure his toys are picked up, putting his dishes in the sink and that sort of thing).

    I’m wondering, Kari, do you usually initiate these types of things cold-turkey, or do you work up to them? Hudson’s very helpful in general, but I’m sure there would be some resistance to totally changing up our routine at once. Just curious how other moms do it and what works for you?

  2. Great question, Caila. Dutch was already used to doing the first few things, so I started with the first 5 cards and then added the others after he got the hang of things. Yes, adding 12 new chores cold-turkey would be a bit of a shock to the system! I hope this can be helpful for Hudson!

  3. Ok, friend, you know I love this and have been thinking about starting something like this with Cody. What I’m wondering is what you do on days that you have to be out the door well before 10. Do you just do the basics and then come back to the rest after you return? ie/ tomorrow for church…what will your morning look like?

  4. Good question! Yes, I usually just do 1-4 on those days. Sundays Dutch gets “off” and I think Tuesdays I’ll do the same since he goes to his class those days. I figure 5 days/week of school and verses is enough anyway. I like having the routine that gives me freedom to be flexible… they could look totally different for you but hope this can be helpful! xoxo

  5. I’m impressed! That is actually a really long list for his age. I don’t think Cade and Bode could do it without a couple breaks in the middle!

    1. Ha! Well there’s plenty of squirrellyness mixed it so I’m not much of a taskmaster. And he’s usually hopping on one leg while he’s doing verses … fine with me! 🙂

Comments are closed.

Share This