Thursday, January 12, 2012

I Don't Wanna Do My Chores!

There are a lot of things I don't know about kids.
Like why my almost 6 year old has random attitude problems.
Or why my 1 year old likes to destroy thing so much more than my other kids.
But there are some things I do know about kids.
I know that routine is crucial for my boys to function like little human beings.
Without it they turn into crazies.
But sometimes the kids get bored with the routine, especially when it comes to chores.
I hate fighting my kids to do their chores.
Like really really hate it.
So I'm always trying to look for really cool chore charts or different ideas to make it a little more exciting.
One time I made chore dice.
I put pictures of different chores like dusting or emptying the trash on each side.
Every day they got to roll the dice and see which chore they got to do.
They thought it was so much fun that they wanted to roll 500 times a day.
So I had to make a rule, if you roll it you have to do it.
It worked like magic for a few months but then they got bored.
So we made a chart and they got to put up stickers every day that they did their chores and at the end of the week they got a little treat if they had stickers for every day.
Once again good for awhile but then they lost interest.
It has taken me 5 years but I think I've finally figured out something brilliant.
My children get bored with chores!
I mean seriously who would have thought.
That doesn't mean that I stop making them work.
It just means that doing chores is part of our routine, how we decide what they do has to be mixed up a little.
Right now we are doing chore sticks.
I have a bunch of popsicle sticks that I've written different chores on and every day after school they get to pick a stick from the jar.
Today was day 2 and it went perfect.
They ran to me when I said it was time to pick a stick and went straight to work after I told them what it said.
No whining or crying or asking to do it later.
Now that's what a momma likes to hear.

So there are a lot of things that I still need to learn about
 kids but it does make me feel good to know that I am making progress and learning new things about my kids.

Is there anything that motivates your kids to do their chores?
Because I don't think you can ever have too many tips about this subject.


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