Chore Chart

 We have been so tired of getting after the boys to clean up and help out around the house. All they would do is whine and complain and not do what we asked. It was draining on us all! It reached the point where a week after Christmas all their toys were taken away from them for not picking up. And when I say all, I mean ALL, EVERYTHING- it was GONE!!! You'd think that would have created some anger and some thrashing & gnashing of teeth but sadly their exact reaction in their own words: "oh, it's gone." That's it. Then they happily danced and ran around the emptied toy room like they didn't have a care in the world. So it solidifed my resolve that something needed to be done.

 Thus enter the new way of life: Our Chore Chart. We had a good FHE where we pulled out The Family, A Proclamation to the World. We talked about the part about being a family and what it takes to be a family and in there it talks about work. We told them that the prophets have counseled that work is essential to a happy family among other things but our focus was on work. We explained that work has to be done by ALL and then there will be more time for fun and play time. It really seemed to help. They've been doing everything rather well. And for now their reward for doing chores is to get a toy back each day without "murmuring." Eventually it will resume back to them earning a quarter a day.

 Each day the chores are going to be different, their will be some that will be the same day after day, like pajamas and brushing teeth. But this is how we've chosen to do it. Obviously you could do any variations that fit your family. We used clip art pictures because Nate's the only one that can read right now. So this is what works for us but again you could come up with your own cute creations.

 I wanted to capture their personalities. I think I was succesful. FYI, they did have feet but when I went to laminate them I discovered Audrey had eaten Josh's feet so I had to chop everyone's feet off.

  I think I just want to add some vinyl strips to create 4 sections for all the kids when Audrey's older. For now the last section is going to be for the various chore assignments. But this chore chart has resulted in a cleaner & happier Fritz home.