Chat with Ruthie… Summer Chore Charts

Chat with Ruthie… Summer Chore Charts

Another summer is upon us and you maybe excited OR just a little afraid wondering how to keep things a little less than a circus at home with all the kiddos under foot!!  I’ve been there…

My answer to this yearly dilemma…. Summer Chore Charts!!  YEP, even the sound of them makes me smile!  Why?  Cuz, I don’t have to be the nagging bad guy all summer long.  AND that makes me happy 🙂

SO, the idea is this:

I make a chart for each child and laminate them so they can be marked on and erased easily.  You can custom fit the chart to each child, if there are certain things that that child needs extra help on… (like Jake, he’ll be typing for 20 minutes everyday all summer long!)  We attach magnets with hot glue on the backs of the charts and a couple of wipe away markers then put them on the back of the garage door (which is metal) and the kids can mark their charts each day.

When my kids were really little the charts had pictures of their chores!  ie: making their bed, brushing their teeth, doing a chore, etc.  They liked feeling all grown up and marking their chart, it also helps to keep the mornings on track because we have a rule that no one gets to do anything else until their charts are done.

The incentive??   MONEY $$$

I pay my kids in the summers for their charts.  When they were little it was a dime per job per day… now that they’re older it’s a quarter.  The catch is they have to save half the money they earn in a saving account that can  never be used.  All my kids have CD’s with their “college” or “rainy day” money safely tucked away!

Not too long ago my Kate actually thanked me for having her stick by this rule!! (shock)  During a conversation with her friends they some how got talking about savings accounts… she said, “Mom, I have so much more money saved than all my friends,  I was embarrassed to tell them how much I have but, thank you for having me save all my life.”  It was a cool mommy moment 🙂

So,  I only do the charts during the summer and they don’t get paid for Saturday jobs during the year… sometimes you just do things because your part of the family!

Back to the charts…

Our chores are:  Clean room, get dressed and ready, bridge workbook, daily journal entry/scriptures (or gospel read), read 20 minutes, job (whatever we assign or needs done), exercise (15 minutes).

There are these awesome books called Bridge Workbook and they have them for every grade up through 9th.   This helps kids so they don’t forget all they’ve learned from the previous year and it teaches them some new things as well.  My kids have always liked having them…

We made our charts using Numbers program but it could easily be done in Excel or Google doc’s.  If you’d like the pdf I used… email me and I’ll send you a copy of it.  I printed the charts onto card stock, wrote on them in that child’s favorite color, and took them to the local printing shop to be laminated.  The whole thing took very little time and money but they can be used for years!

I hope these charts are helpful to you for your summer time… we’ve loved them for years and honestly, most of the kids have already asked when they get to start them AND school gets out in 2 days!!

Love,

Ruthie