Task Cards

As I thought about summer, I came to a firm conclusion that I needed to have some sort of routine. While I hope we have a fun, relaxing summer, I also need to have some sanity. I came up with what I felt would work for my kids.

I created a "task card" for each child. (I have called it a task card since my 6 year old daughter is already convinced chores are hard and bad.) Since my boys are just barely 3 I needed something very visual. Some of the clip art is a little funky, but hey it was free on Microsoft Word.

This is how it works:
Each child is expected to *make their bed *eat breakfast *get dressed *and do one chore first thing in the morning. Once these 4 tasks are complete than they can play outside, watch cartoons or do whatever until lunch.
(maybe you don't have to remind your children to get dressed or eat breakfast, but mine have a tendency to want to play before these basic things happen.)

We eat lunch together and then the kids are expected to go to quiet time. Oh, quiet time! This has been an interesting go in and of itself! Actually, Little Miss (6) is pretty good to sit in her room and listen to books on cd, color, or look at books. But my 3 year old boys...now that can be a challenge some days! But we're still in training and it's slowly getting better.

After quiet time we have "summer school." My kids, especially Little Miss, LOVE this time. I will post a separate post on what we do for summer school.
As long as their tasks are done than they can play or watch t.v. until dinner.
Then they have their dinner and bedtime tasks.

Included on the task card is one chore. This is how I've decided to divvy out the chores. I created 18 chores on the cards (that is 1 card per child per 6 days a week.) Each child randomly selects one card a day. It's been fun so far because the kids look forward to drawing their cards. It must seem like a game for them. And Little Miss has been more than willing to help her brothers with their chores. And yes, there is vacuuming and mopping on the cards, but I figure my Friday (or Saturday) cleaning will adequately make up for whatever the small kiddies' cleaning skills lack. It's all about the training and the consistency, right?

I tacked these all up in their hallway so it is easy to see. I didn't laminate them or make them real durable because I figure it will only need to last through the summer and then I'll end up changing things again.

So I'm reading "The Parenting Breakthrough" (by Merrilee Boyack) which is an excellent eye opening book and I might end up changing everything! But we'll see how this goes for a while.

I look at lots of mommy blogs...and this idea came from a mixture of a couple blogs I saw. But I'm horrible and didn't mark what they were so I really can't give credit where credit is deserve.