something new

In trying to balance out my life a bit I decided one thing that had to happen was a successful way for the kids to help out around the house. We've tried a lot of different things - none of them having had long term success.
So I came up with this:

It's our new chore system... and I love it! I came up with 10 chores the girls could do with minimal to no help and printed them off and had them laminated. I sewed it using just one yard of fabric for the main part and some scraps for the words, and I used strips of clear vinyl (which is so cheap) for the little pockets. I wanted 7 pockets - one for a picture (wallet size) and then six slots for Monday through Saturday. On Sunday nights we let the girls choose two chores they are going to complete every day Monday through Friday. Note: I do not consider brushing hair/teeth, taking baths and stuff like that chores for my kids. The girls are old enough to do those things without being praised and rewarded for them. The hard part was what do to for an incentive to get the chores done? I didn't want to give them real or fake money, I didn't want to give them toys or candy... So we decided if they do their chores every day then on Saturday night they get to stay up "late" - which means we start the bedtime routine at 8:30 instead of 7:30. The girls were thrilled with this arrangement (especially Sophie - our night owl.) And they get to choose what we do with that time. This Saturday we played pirates (a household favorite which needs to be recorded one of these days...), played a round of Guess Who and Cootie Bug and then the girls watched an episode of Hello Kitty on Hulu. The girls have done a great job doing their chores and the only problem we've ran into was at first they thought since they had their assigned chores that meant they didn't need to do anything else! So we had a talk about the things they are expected to do, such as clearing their own dishes from meals, putting their clothes in the hamper, and general cleaning up things they play with vs. chores from the chore chart. It feels so great to have a system that I think will work for the long term.

Oh, we also have some cards with "scripture reading" and "prayers" on them. I put this card behind the girls pictures and they are in charge that week of reminding us to do those things. And they also get to tell our family how we did at doing both of those things each night (did we listen, were we reverent, etc.) and what we could do better the next night. It's been pretty fun - and good for the kids to do this.