chores/chore charts

[A home for their hearts]

I need ideas for chores for my dc. Right now they really don't have any so I'm looking for things that a a 7 & 8 yr old can do and how to implement it.

[Pamela H in Texas]

Honestly?

 

Your kids are plenty old enough to learn to do ANY basic cleaning chore in the entire house correctly. Regardless of what you choose to teach them, it'll take training. I'd just jump right in.

 

First on my list would be kitchen. LOL I HATE the kitchen and the sooner it's delegated out, at least partially, the better. The bathroom is a little more tricky but has great benefits of kids learning to clean up after themselves along the way.

 

Of course, trash, pet care, vacuuming, sweeping/mopping, laundry sorting are easier things but I'm assuming that though not really chores, these are things they've done in some capacity since 2 or 3. So adding one or two per kid should be easy since there won't be much training involved.

 

Thing is to remember that chores require training, a sense of teamwork, and regular checking. If you skimp on any of these, you'll end up like so many with chore and character problems.

 

HAVE FUN WITH IT!

[Rhonda@LivingWater]

For my 7-8 year olds I have them do the following:

Make their beds

Sweep the dining room

Empty garbage

Walk the dog

Dust the furniture

Help with washing laundry

Put up their laundry

Empty dishwasher, etc.

Of course chore needs for each family will differ.

I made their charts from this site:

http://www.dltk-cards.com/chart/

That is a great site to customize their chore chart and type in what you want. I run those off, place them in page protectors and use a magnet to put them on the fridge. Then they use a dry erase marker to mark off what they have done. At the end of the week I erase the marker and use them over and over. Our current charts were ran off nearly two years ago and still work fine.

HTH!

[King Alfred Academy]

I have a ds4 and a ds 7 (on Friday) who thrive on structure yet need to "feel" independent. Here is what they have to do...

Both (everyday)...

Before school- Brush teeth and pick up their room

By dinner time-scour (completely) their room

Before bed-brush teeth and pick up their room

(their room gets messy through out the day)

DS4 (everyday)...sweep the kitchen after dinner

DS7 (everyday)...clear off the table and clean it after dinner

Both (when needed)...fold and put away towels, underware, and socks

DS4 (when needed)...put away the clean silverware (not the knives:))

DS7 (when needed)...clean the bathroom (with non toxic cleaner...he likes having his own pair of rubber gloves!)

 

I blogged about it and put our chore chart on if you would like to see it.

http://kingalfredacademy.blogspot.com/2008/01/6-going-on-13.html

 

I hope this helps!

[Dayle in Guatemala]

My dc at that age did things like:

 

making their beds, bringing down their dirty clothes to the laundry room, put away their clean clothes, cleared the table, washed dishes (not all of them like knives, china, and hard to wash pots and pans), put away dishes, picked up the living room and dining room areas of the house, took care of pets, and helped clean out the car

 

I'm glad you're thinking of giving them some responsibility. When my dc meet another child that doesn't have chores, they kind of feel sorry for them! Sounds weird, but, they look at it as helping out in the family so it's important to them.

[MNClaire]

I made their charts from this site:

www.dltk-cards.com/chart/

That is a great site to customize their chore chart and type in what you want. I run those off, place them in page protectors and use a magnet to put them on the fridge. Then they use a dry erase marker to mark off what they have done. At the end of the week I erase the marker and use them over and over. Our current charts were ran off nearly two years ago and still work fine.

HTH!

 

 

What a great website, Rhonda. Thank you!

[Pongo]

9 yod- make her bed,put her clothes away(I fold laundry at night and bring it into the rooms while they are sleeping) and get dressed before she comes out of her room.

Then she goes in the bathroom, washes her face, brushes hair and starts her chore chart which consits of, using the pooper scooper in the "spot" where her dog goes and tossing it into the woods:( feed the dog , empty the top rack of the dishwsher & pull out the knives from the silverware basket (put those away), wipe down the bathroom counters. Then she wakes up the 5 yod.

 

My 5 yod does the same before coming out of her room. Her chores are, empty the bathroom trash, put the clothes in the downstairs hamper and put the silverware away.

 

My 8yod- does the same before he comes out of his room, his chores are.

Bring down the recycleables, take out the trash, fill up the dogs water bowl thats downstairs and empty out the bottom rack of the dishwasher.

 

Then its breakfast for ALL, my 9 yod clears the breakfast table, my 5 yod wipes the table down and my 8 yod brushes his teeth and starts guitar.

Soon after, the girls are in the bathroom doing the same, my 9yod gets going with piano and I have about 40 minutes with the 5 yod by 7:45 AM.

 

My 9 and 8 yod also have dusting once a week and that's it.