One of the things I've decided to do was to write this blog weekly. I've decided that Tuesdays are the best days for me to get this stuff done, so it will probably be weekly on Tuesdays. So here goes, The first Tuesday blog of the year.
What I figured I would do was show you my route to organization this year in pictures. I'll show you my mess and how I cleaned it up, one area of my house at a time. When I'm done I'm determined to be able to take a video of my house and show you how everything has turned out.
I'll be posting before pictures...try not to judge me too harshly. I'm not a naturally organized person and I know it. I'm not a professional organizer, but working with Clever Container has introduced me to several of them online. I'm gleaning as I go.
Basically I just want to show you my struggle. I know that you all have at least one area where you struggle. Nobody is good at EVERYTHING. I'm just trying to be brave enough to show you what my problems are and show you how I'm working on them. With God's help, I'll beat this thing called chaos.
Ready to begin?
Today I'm going to show you what I've done to help me and the kids get a bit more organized in chores.
I admit, I found the idea from Pinterest. I followed the link here and found a blog about these awesome chore sticks.
I have to say, I'd had a pretty good chore system in place, but I'd been having trouble with the kids complaining. I had the house divided in sections and gave the kids the instructions for their section and the sections rotated every week. It kind of worked, but I kept having trouble with the kids just irritated with the same chore all week or not having time for their weekly chore to pass inspection.
This chore jar thing has worked pretty well. I've only done it for a couple of days, so we'll see how well it works later, but for now the kids are excited. The part they like best is that I give them a number of sticks that they pull out from the jar. The sticks have something on it like "rake leaves in front yard" or "unload dishwasher". There are also sticks that say "free chore" or "take an extra stick" to mix things up a bit and make it seem more like a game.
I'm using this together with my iRewardchart app on my phone. This gives the kids something to work for. If they complete a chore, they get a star. The app keeps track of the stars and allows the kids to redeem the stars for rewards. Sounds good, huh?
The thing my oldest daughter likes is that she isn't stuck in one area for a week, or even a day if she has 2 sticks in different areas of the house. She hates working in the bathroom, but if she gets one stick with a bathroom chore and one outside chore, she doesn't complain as much. Of course, since we are working on attitudes and complaining, they are getting extra stars (iRewardchart has a behavior section for stars too) for doing their chores without complaining or grumbling...and they have the opportunity to lose stars if they whine.
With those two ideas together, I've really gotten some things done with the kids home today. Sure, the kids' chores are spread out throughout the house and it looke like there is still a lot more work to do, but the kids did what they were told and I know I can just get out the chore jar when they all need something to do. Nobody wants to tell me they are bored, either....
No comments:
Post a Comment