#HowIHandleIt - Kids + Chores

#HowIHandleIt - Day 2 - Kids + Chores

The problem with writing a blog about my life, is my life. I always seem to have so much going on that sitting down for a few minutes to write seems fleeting. Fortunately my phone will translate my words into text and I can sit here burping the baby and talking to myself and thus there will be words to read.

One of the big changes we made around here lately is the way we do chores. Traditionally I would make a list every Saturday or Sunday of chores that need to be done before the next weekend. It never seemed like a lot and always seem pretty easy to fit everything into my week unless something crazy happens. What I noticed was my attention was always divided between the chores to get done, homeschooling stuff that needed my attention, and of course just focus time with the kids.

So now my new plan is to make my list by Friday night. And instead of using one sheet of paper that is all mine, I use three. At the top of each page I write Team A, Team B and Mom. Each of the girls gets one of the team pages and gets to pick a buddy to work with. Some buddies are in a higher demand than others! Then on Saturday morning after we have celebration breakfast, the teams set to work! We have been getting finished in about 45 minutes with all of the chores for the week except for the ones that just can't be done that quickly like laundry, or ones that have to be done later in the week. All of those things go on my list.

Some of the benefits I've seen have been a clean house at the start of the week, of course. There has been lots of learning about teamwork and how to accomplish a project together. It's also been fun to watch the kids that don't have a chore buddy play with the little ones and keep them occupied so the rest of us can get jobs done.

Now, before you think I'm taking credit for this plan let me just tell you my husband is the one who originally said we should do this. In fact he suggested we do it this way probably five years ago. He has always been a big fan of everybody work together and get the house really good and then we can just enjoy the rest of the weekend and I am finally on board!

We also do quick clean ups every day before lunch and before screen time.  It helps keep the house under control daily.  I also keep up on things like vacuuming and laundry during the week because we have to but I sometimes assign those out as well!

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