Rotating Chores

This week, I assembled a new version of our chore chart to give our family a chance to view the "big picture." I did this now because:

(1) I'm getting more organized as the baby is getting older (almost 6 months),

(2) Joseph turned five which, in our family, means more chores and he starts getting an allowance, and

(3) I wanted to make more formal our afternoon pick-up time.

We've been highly successful with having rotating meal time chores for the last half year or so. They change each week and children just glance at the sign to know what they are to do after each meal. In the afternoon, we pick up the house, but it's done shotgun style, with me just calling out what help I need. Now I am going to make this more formal, so I picked eight chores that would really make the home more neat before dinnertime, and I've assigned them among the four children. Also, we've long been in the habit of picking up the Bonus Room (school and play room) on Sundays so it is ready for school Monday morning: why not put one child in each room for a 15-minute clean-up on Sundays so that the whole house is more ready for school on Monday mornings?

Our children are generally amenable to doing chores, but it certainly has taken years of teaching (hard work from Mama, with Daddy backing her up). It's not "all roses," but I strongly encourage the homeschooling mothers who are the main readers of this blog to obtain great involvement among their children in maintaining the home. Our homes get even more messy than typical homes because we usually have more children in them and we are home, schooling here, and that causes the house to get topsy turvy. One of the great blessings of the homeschooling lifestyle is that children have more opportunities to learn service and labor within the home: I don't want to miss out on that opportunity for character growth!

Family Chores for the Week of February 5

	Waking up (5 mins.)	Meal Times (15 mins.)	Daily Afternoon (15 mins.)	Saturday Mornings (30 mins.)	Sunday
Mama	Make bed	Prepare all meals Set table	1)Pick up dining room 2)Neaten kitchen counters	Pick up and vacuum master bedroom, guest room, living room, and dining room	Pick up bonus room for the new school week
John (11)	Make bed	Sweep	1)Empty kitchen garbage 2)Empty shoe basket to garage bins	1) Clean master bathroom 2)Vacuum boys’ room	Vacuum bonus room
Mary (9)	Make bed	Clear and wipe table	1)Bring down tomorrow’s dirty laundry 2)Straighten Shoe and Coat Area	1)Clean kids’ bathroom 2)Vacuum girls’ room	Pick up the dining room
Margaret (6)	Make bed	Load dirty dishes	1)Empty all small trash cans 2)Straighten bike area	1)Pick up girls’ room 2)Clean downstairs bathroom	Pick up the sun room
Joseph (5)	Make bed	Empty clean dishwasher	1)Pick up the den 2)Take stairs basket up to bonus room	1)Pick up boys’ room (with Mama)	Pick up the den

Just to answer the question that some might be wondering: Laundry is a huge chore in a big family that doesn't make much of an appearance on this chart. My 11- and 9-year-olds are trained to do laundry and will do a load for me if asked. However, it's not yet part of their regular duties. My intention is that children reaching middle school will then be responsible for all their own laundry (so, for John, likely next year). In the meanwhile, I wash all the laundry, but the oldest two put away all their own laundry, and the six-year-old puts hers away alongside of me (being an apprentice), and then I put away everything for the youngest three boys.