On this blog we talk a lot about teaching kids responsibility from a young age. It’s really important to me that my kids grow up to be responsible & caring.
One of the things we work VERY hard on in our house is instilling a sense of pride in taking ownership for your home and helping out the family.
The kids get an allowance that is NOT TIED to their chores and then they are expected to do chores simply because they live here. You can read more about that here >>
It’s been a long journey, but now that they are 10, 8, and 6, my persistence has paid off. They now do their lists of chores without complaining because they know if they just get it done A) mama will be happy and B) they will feel a sense of accomplishment.
It’s important to me that they aren’t shamed into doing chores.
I want household chores to be something they do out of a sense of duty tand obligation to their family with the instrinsic reward being that they did good today.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the benefits of requiring children to do chores, which include higher self-esteem, ability to handle frustration, and the willingness to accept delayed gratification. All things I want my children to have! I think we’re on the right track here with these life skills.
I used to just TELL my kids what chores they had to do for the day. One day I realized you could buy these amazing wall-hanging magnetic chore charts and it forever changed my life!
We had one of these Melissa & Doug ones for a couple years until my toddler distributed all the magnets around the house. lol
Now that they are used to doing chores, we use a simple handwritten checklist for chore day, but when we were first instilling this practice in their lives, the chore chart served as an excellent visual reminder and great motivator to keep them on task.
Moving over the magnetic tiles is so satisfying. Even as an adult, I get why the kids like it. Seeing what you have to do and then the getting the gratification of moving over your accomplishments to the DONE side? Such a great mental boost!
If you don’t have one yet, make sure to get one for your kids. We used the Melissa & Doug one above but I found several other cool styles on Etsy and Amazon that you can check out below!
If you want to refer back to this post later, make sure to save this image to Pinterest:
Visual Chore Charts for Your Wall
This chart is great if you have several kids in your family. It has a chalkboard surface and comes with wooden buttons. As the kids complete each chore like washing dishes or sweeping, they can move over the buttons to the DONE side.
It’s a great way to visually see their progress and you can simply re-use the chart week after week.
Personalized Kids Chore Chart from Blue Wink Designs
Hanging Kids Chore Chart with Magnets from TreeSawCrafts
This is such a cute chore board. It’s only $11.99 and it comes with magnets! Can’t beat that deal. My 10-year-old said this is her favorite because she loves the color and black ribbon. Anything to get them more on board with doing chores, right?!
You could hang this magnet chore board near a family command center and easily keep track of which chores still need to be done.
This one is a great idea if you like assigning daily chores for all the kids in the family instead of distinct chores per child and you can also include your own chores in there. I love being able to move the chores to the DONE side myself! 🙂
Some people ask me if I have a set cleaning schedule. We do not, but I can say that we mostly do chores on weekends in our house. And I’ll usually give the kids a heads up and say something like “At 11 AM we’re all gonna do chores for an hour and then we’ll be done for the weekend.” This way they know when to expect it and can understand that it won’t be a never ending ordeal.
I don’t have a set time that we do this on the weekends. I literally fit it into MY weekend as I see fit and that works best. I think it’s important as moms to not overwhelm ourselves with unnecessary time constraints so don’t feel pressured to come up with a set chore schedule ahead of time that you do like clockwork. That makes it feel like a burden and puts unnecessary pressure on you!
Chore Chart for Kids Who Get Paid for Chores
I know some people love paying their kids for doing chores, so I wanted to include this in the list! These chore boards are custom made and come with a ribbon for hanging.
Custom Chore Chart for Children from MoreThanAMemoryAK
Colorful Chore Chart to Put on Your Fridge
This one is great if you have a large family or want to list out every single chore by day for multiple children. Each family does it differently. We do chores as they come up, not assign them to a particular day of the week. But I can see how listing the week’s items out ahead of time would be more straightfoward.
You can get creative with this chore chart!
Chore Chart Magnets!
If you already have a magnetic chore chart OR you want to try your hand at making your own one, here is an awesome set of chore chart magnets that you can grab from SallySuesShop on Etsy.
Just pick and choose your own buttons but so you can customize which chores appear on your board! Technically, you could just use these magnets directly on your refridgerator without an actual chart. Just sort them into groups by child. Kinda like free-form chore assignments! 🙂
Chore Chart Magnets from SallySuesShop
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