summer chore cards

19 June 2009

Summer is in full swing!

Holy cow! I was a little taken aback to have all 5 running through the house again (okay, the baby doesn't run, but still...) with their friends all day. I was going crazy and then I remembered a delightful little thing I used to use called chore cards. My friend, Lynee introduced me to them when we lived in Idaho, and I have been using them in the summer since then. It's a fun way to get your kids to get their work done before you all go out to play.

I made up a list of all the chores my kids help me do. Walk through your house and see what you would like done. Maybe you want dusting to happen at least once a week. Maybe your glass screen doors are covered in fingerprints like mine. Maybe everyone's shoe baskets are spilling into each others and you need to organize them and distribute them to the rooms. Or better yet, why couldn't your kids organize them?

Your kids can do more than you think~it may take some time to teach them how the job needs to be done, but in the long run it will pay off for years and years on both your parts.
You all live in the house and you all need to help take care of it, right?
Right. :)

Then, I typed up the list in Microsoft Word and added clip art pictures with them to make them a little more fun and also for the younger ones that can't read. I printed them off on different color of cardstock for each child,

cut them into cards,

and then took them to Mardel to get them laminated (I've found teacher and homeschool stores the least expensive for laminating)

The kids cut them up,
(if you're type A, you can straighten up the cutting when they're in bed :)

Then I punched holes into them and put them onto a ring.
Remember that frame I turned into a bulletin board? Turns out the hooks are a perfect place to hang chore cards on!

I uploaded my chore cards here. Feel free to copy, paste, and change away to fit your family.

This is how we use them:

The "essential" ones like getting dressed, making bed, brushing teeth, etc. are done every day. I put a little star with a sharpie on those ones. Then, each day I add in one or two extra jobs that I decide need to be done that day. It makes a world of difference to divide the jobs up. Our big rule is that no one plays with friends, outside, on the computer, tv, or wii, nothing until their cards are finished. It's amazing how fast they work when their friends are waiting for them outside and their "cards" aren't finished yet. Now, lest you think my kids wake every morning and come in and ask, "how can I help you today, mom?" I need to tell you that there will most likely be opposition. There will be some days of wailing, whining, protesting, gnashing of teeth, crying, howling, BUT

If you look...you'll also see some fun cards. I don't throw these in every day, but they just love these. It's a fun way to make them look forward to something and the chores seem to be done extra quick on those days.

I like to change things up every few months to keep the momentum going (especially with chores) so in the fall, we switch to chore charts. Also, I would recommend making some blank cards to write on with a dry erase marker for new ones you think of and want to add...
I hope these help you out!
Have a great weekend~

ETA Again!: I uploaded it to 4 Share. Hopefully this works. I tried to fix the Google Docs link~ It may or may not work for you here (the formatting isn't there, but you get the idea)

39 comments

  1. What a great idea (and you made it look cute too!).

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  2. Surely you were a teacher! I did that in my classroom for "Classroom Helpers". What a great idea for you busy mothers to use. Children need to learn responsibility. When my children were young, I used a job jar. I put all the things that needed to be done on strips of paper and put them in a jar. Each day, they had to draw out two, three, or four, depending on the day. Of course with my plan, they said the other one always drew the easy jobs. LOL. Your plan is more equitable. Thanks for sharing your great ideas.

    Charla

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  3. Fabulous,
    I am going to borrow this idea from you. Love the little rings with the hooks...great. I think that my son will just love the idea as well!!
    Thanks so much for helping create a little order in our summer!!
    Enjoy the rest of your day!!
    Hugs, Nerina :)

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  4. This is great Melissa! Good Lord woman, I have one child and can barely keep up some days! You are my hero! Is that your youngest in the pic?? Time FLIES!

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  5. Great idea. I tried so many things to get my daughter motivated over the years. Finally, I said out of frustration...you have to have chores...what would you like to do? She cleans up the dinner dishes...I surprise her sometimes and do them myself when she has had a particularly stressful day...she goes to a college-prep middle school. Mary had these in the classroom...she loved them.

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  6. meliss what a GREAT IDEA! I tried to use the link but it will not let me....

    Anyway love that little cutie also...like I always say children make me smile...guess that is why I chose this field to work in.

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  7. Fabulous idea! Thanks for sharing the useful tip.

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  8. What an excellent idea! Thank you!

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  9. Hmmm - Google Docs says I'm not authorized to view the link?

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  10. It won't let me do it either :(

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  11. :( Says I need to be authorized?!?

    These look so cute! Hopefully we can download them later.

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  12. This is a great idea! I was just thinking about doing a chore chart for my 3 year old. :) I love the way you made them into little booklets. :)

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  13. You are an answer to my PRAYERS!!! Thanks so much for sharing! (I too am having trouble because I am not authorized.)

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  14. This is great. We have tried a chore chart and let them Earn allowance ....it is not working as I had hoped. I would love to try this....Google docs would not let me have access either....Would love to...fabulous idea

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  15. Enjoyed your blog but I was unable to access your adorable chore cards from goggle. Any ideas on what I may have done wrong?
    Thanks! Bebe
    bebedance5@charter.net

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  16. I love this idea! I can't access the link yet, but will keep checking back.

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  17. I can't access the link and I so need this for my crazy 5 kids here in Ga! I've tried different things before and we haven't had much success but, this looks like a fun one to try:) I'm tired of feeling like I'm in a war every morning to just get simple tasks done...like get your towel, googles and shoes and climb in the car without screaming and fighting at one another or me! lol

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  18. It won't let me access the document, so I sent a request to you thru Google. Thanks for all the great ideas!!

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  19. Thanks for sharing these with us... It's just the thing I've been needing.

    I'll check back to see when I can get access to the docs.

    Thanks again!

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  20. Fantastic and I'm swiping this for sure!!

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  21. Hi everyone~let's try this again...let me know how it's coming through~thanks!!

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  22. Oh, and Charla, yes! I was a 5th grade teacher. Does it show that badly? :)

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  23. Perfect as my kids are just getting out of school. Thanks!
    ♥ jen

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  24. Melissa - I am going to totally steal this idea! It's just great.

    Blessings,
    Marie
    http://emmacallsmemama.com

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  25. Wowsers! That is a great thing, you spent lots of time putting them together for us! I have job charts, but this will be good to change it up a little bit. I love the idea of sneaking in some fun ones too! Love you! I've never heard back from you about the flowers, but I am assuming you know I got them for you . . .

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  26. Wow.. fab idea. I just might steal this idea of yours. Would be perfect for my 3 years old boy but MORE perfect for my 13 years old boy..I have to SPELL everything out for him to do.. ugh. This may do the trick after all... thanks! :)

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  27. THANK YOU!! I started to make a chart the other day in Excel, but I might have to copy this. Great idea!

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  28. As always, another great idea. I will have to put these to use a couple of years down the road. Thanks for sharing, and I love where you are hanging them.

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  29. What a marvelous idea. Download comlete ! Can't wait to use these.

    Kate

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  30. I just wanted to let you know that I love your blog!! Igave you a blog award!

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  31. What a fun idea. We do something similar at our house, it works for us. My kids actually like doing chores now, but my favorite part is all of the laminating!!!

    http://easyathome.blogspot.com/2009/05/we-love-our-chore-cards.html

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  32. great idea I will link this in the morning.

    cheri
    www.itssoverycheri.blogspot.com

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  33. I just found you blog and I LOVE it! I love seeing all your transformations and such. You have given me some great ideas. Thanks so much!

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  34. What a great idea! Thanks for sharing this.

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  35. Yes - definitely a cool idea! My kids do so well with some kind of visual reminder like this - and as a former teacher - I can totally see many benefits of a simple, yet useful tool like these cards!

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  36. Very useful, especially when classes are over for the summer. Thanks for selflessly sharing these.

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  37. Thank you so much for posting these. I have been looking online for something to put together for my kids and these are exactly what I wanted. Thank you for doing all the work for me!

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  38. love this idea! I think we'll need some of these at our house : )

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