chore charts for kids
Summertime with school-age kids can be a ton of fun! My photo memories are filled with pics of my kids at pools, running in sprinklers, lots of ice cream, playing with friends, making library runs, biking, hiking, and watching outdoor movies on the back porch.
Let’s be real, though, summer can also be a challenge to instill a structure and plan. Both kids and adults have to make adjustments for how the day will go. If your house is anything like mine, the first few days are fun chaos, and then an action plan is sorely needed.
Enter stage left: chore cards. I needed something that would provide a basic agreement between the two of us to what meant “clean” or “complete” and I needed something that was nag-proof. Nothing sucks up relationship currency like nagging, and I’m a strategic planner with the relational bucks.
I made up chore cards for each room in the house. After ten years I can say that I still have the same cards and they have stood the test of time.
{keep reading for chore card strategy}
If you want to make your own, here’s the skinny:
1. Pick the rooms you want your kids to learn how to clean (or the ones you want to be cleaned the most).
2. Make a list of what you want to be done in each room (dust, vacuum, clean up…). If your kids are not reading yet, you could use emojis or images.
{As a special bonus I have these cards already created for you!
3. Print out your list and LAMINATE it so the kids can mark off their progress, then erase and reuse.
4. Purchase whiteboard markers.
Two or three mornings each summer the kids would come downstairs to see cards placed face down on the table (one per child). They would pick a card at breakfast and the job they picked was their assignment. With their card and whiteboard marker, they cleaned the room and placed an X next to each part they finished. When I saw the checked-off card back on the table, I knew they had finished.
Strategy, strategy, strategy.
1. Set a Goal. What’s most important to you for your kid to learn that summer? Is it how to dust like a pro? Or maybe time management? How about follow-through? Keep that goal in the front of your mind as you use the chore cards. If you are interested in time management skills, start with a goal of a noon finish, and as they do well, push out the finish time. Then don’t sweat the quality control. Keeping a single goal in mind will help keep the main thing the main thing.
2. Teach first. Do these cards WITH them the first time. Make it fun with music. Talk to them specifically about what they do well and what you like. Emphasize character qualities over the end product (“I love how careful you are with things that are delicate” is a compliment that carries more long-term benefit than “good job”).
3. Character above the finished product. Everything with kids is character training, and chore cards are no exception. The clean house is a side benefit. If a clean house is your goal you will be frustrated until those kiddos leave home and that’s no way to live. The goal is to instill character; maturing takes time and consistency. Do not expect your kids to have a perfect product by the end of the day. Expect them to grow in faithfulness, or honesty, or work ethic, or diligence, or even just basic knowledge in cleaning. Do not expect this to serve as a maid service.
4. Same Page. Get everyone on the same page before you start. Tell them what you expect and what a successful finish looks like. If you’re up for it, brainstorm a consequence you all agree on. Then WRITE IT DOWN. We had a small piece of paper on the fridge with these things listed for the sake of my sanity and to avoid the “you never said!” and “I didn’t know!” arguments.
{Here’s an example of what was on our fridge while our kids were in middle school.}
5. Don’t Nag. Whatever you do, when you assign your kid a chore card, DO NOT NAG them. This is really, really, really hard. Here’s the deal though, nagging is expensive. When you nag your kid you are withdrawing out of the relationship balance you have built up, and nagging is a big spend. So hand the cards out and walk away.
By the time my kids were in high school they weren’t marking off parts of the cards anymore. At this point, the card is an assignment and they know what it takes to get the room completed. Do they do them perfectly? Nah. But they can dust and vacuums and know what clean looks like. They have some self-awareness about procrastination and the cost to the family when a job isn’t done. And yeah, the house was a bit cleaner in the summer than the school year – huge bonus!
