Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Sophie's Chore Chart

I have been very inspired by Simple Mom's organization skills and been blessed by her willingness to share her ideas and her work. One of the first things on her site that caught my my eye was the Pre-schooler's Chore Chart. She did some research on age-appropriate chore for little ones and came up with some good ideas.

Last Saturday night I printed out the PDF file and customized it a little more for Sophie.

I introduced her to it on Sunday night and we started on Monday morning. So far it's going pretty good. She has made her bed (and helped me make mine) every morning, unloaded the silver ware from the dishwasher, helped with laundry, helped in the kitchen and done some extra work. The main challenge has been keeping her from adding extra stickers! :)

At the end of the week, Sophie will get $.05 (one nickel) for each sticker she has on her chart. Sophie loves money, but up until now she has just been given cash and change by her family...mainly grandparents. The girl always has cash! I don't mind this, my late Grandpa J.R. always gave us kids $1-$3 and called it "walking around money." I just want Sophie to have respect for money and work. I also want to teach her about giving (tithing) and saving at an early age. She already knows how to spend! :) Soon she will move up to the 3-4 yr old class at Church, so she will be with us in the service for worship and the offering. That will give her an opportunity to start learning about the joy of giving.

So.... the chore chart is a success. (If you can say that after only 3 days?) Hopefully we will all continue to grow in this. To be honest, I have had a pretty negative attitude about housework in general and have had to learn much about being a proper home-maker after I got married...kicking and screaming all the way! (Since by nature I am am a 'messie' and Daniel is a 'cleanie' about 90% of our fights the first year we were married were about cleaning! Ick!) I want both of my girls to learn how to keep a home with a happy heart before they get married! :) Don't get me wrong...I still have a LOT to learn about being a good home-maker, but I really am trying. Simple routines for each chore like washing/drying/folding/putting away one load of laundry each day or unloading the dishwasher in the morning, etc have really helped me lately.

Lord, I give my children to you once again. I give you my home. Thank you so much for blessing us with it. Please help me to be a good steward of it. Help me to be content with what I have and to find joy in the mundane, but also very important parts of taking care of my husband, children and home. I love You so much.

ps- Check out Simple Mom for lots of great tips on homemaking/life-management!




3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are a great mom Jen! I can't wait to hear more about Soph's chore chart and have her tell me about it. Love you!

Bert

Meredith said...

I love this idea! I started to make a chart for Graham's night time and morning routine, but never followed through. Now I need to add this to my "to do" list.

Thanks for stopping by our page and your sweet comments. I always love to "meet" new people from Mena (especially). :)

This is a wonderful post--reminding me that being a homemaker is an honor--not a pain. ;)

Dania Efird said...

Housework is my downfall as well! I put it off until I absolutely have to do it! For example, yesterday we were having our pastor over for dinner and I literally had all day to sweep/vaccuum and do the dishes. Did I do it early? Of course not! I started after I got home from picking Xavier up from school around 4:30! I had an entire hour and a half to get all my housework done, plus cook dinner for everyone! I do have one day just for cleaning though and that has helped me tons. Hope you guys have a great day!