July 7, 2006

Scheduling Chores

I have been busy working on chore and school schedules since I returned from Guatemala.  We will begin schoolwork again on Monday (July 10) without spelling, grammar, or science.  We will return to those subjects in September. 

This will be the first time that I school during the summer.  I'm actually looking forward to it, although I don't necessarily plan on doing it every year.  We began Tapestry of Grace Year 4 in February after being on a very light schedule for the first half of the school year.  After finishing Unit 1, I decided to shorten Year 4 so that I can begin Year 1 when my oldest is in seventh grade (this fall).  We did Unit 2 in 5 weeks, and we should be able to do the same with Units 3 and 4, finishing up before the end of September.  I plan to start Year 1 the first week of October, after a weekend campout with some friends.

I borrow heavily from Large Family Logistics for the chores and house managing ideas.  I worked on the chore schedules on Wednesday, and we began full swing on Thursday.  What I did before was put the chores in an Outlook calendar and print it, but the kids never looked at it, and it was difficult to check up and make sure that everything was done.  They are great about doing their chores, but I know that we can schedule the chores more efficiently.

This time I kept the calendar posted, but I also sat down with my oldest son and made a list of daily, weekly, monthly and biannual chores for the family room (which became his assigned room).  My second oldest and I did the same thing for the library and hallway (including the front entrance area), and I then did the bathrooms and back entry/stairway area, which my two girls will maintain. 

I took those lists and turned them into 1-page check-off lists for each assigned room (one for the Family Room, one for the Library/Hallway, one for the Bathroom/Back Entry).  I also created a check-off list for bedroom chores (daily, weekly and monthly).  I then used Large Family Logistics' Table Chore chart and Sample Kitchen Day (available in the Files section of their Yahoo group) and adapted them for my family. 

Everyone picked a color for their assigned room sheet and I printed everything out, posting the assigned Room Chores, Table Chores and Kitchen Day Chores on the refrigerator, and the Bedroom Chores on the kids' bedroom doors.  Each check-off list is in a page protector.  The kids check their chores off with a Vis-a-Vis.  I erase the daily checks after my inspection and approval.  I will erase the weekly chore checks at the end of the week and the monthly chore checks at the end of the month. 

We decided that Thursday will be our cleaning day, so yesterday we did our weekly cleaning.  We deep clean a different section of the house each week, which is when we do the monthly chores for that room.  The person in charge of the room will do the main chores, but we will all pitch in for the deep cleaning.  We will all work on the kitchen every week on Kitchen Day (I haven't picked the actual day of the week for this yet).  I plan on spreading the basement cleaning out over the month, so I still have to do that.  We all work together on the laundry.

I will post what the chore schedule actually looks like on another entry.  I want to try to format it so that it is easy to understand.

I worked on the summer school schedule today.  I will be done with that by Monday and ready to begin!  I will try to write an entry about that once we are settled into it (if it isn't time for the fall schedule).

Signing off for now...

In Him,
~ Andrea

2 comments:

  1. I have a similar system with check off sheets for chores. I list the chore and then each step needed to be done for it to be completed. For example, dishes has listed under it these steps: put away clean dishes, wash dirty dishes, wipe off the counter, table and stove and rinse out the sink. All steps have to be done for chore to be considered finished. I find this especially helps my daughter who has a hard time remembering all the steps involed in a given chore.

    Michelle

    ReplyDelete
  2. mom soccer10 is willow.Check my comments

    ReplyDelete