Amazing Kid's Chore System

My house would be chaos and a mess if I didn't have help cleaning and tidying up after my kids. Who better to help me?  The mess makers themselves. We have a chore system at our house that is an adaptation of my mother-in-law's system from my hubbies childhood. We call it 'job sticks' though it's more of job slips (of paper).   The idea is that I have slips of papers with 5 minute chores written on them. Each day I hang on a board enough various chores for each child to accomplish three. For instance, I have 6 kids doing chores, so I hang up 18 job sticks. Each child chooses one at a time, and must pass off their chore before choosing the next. The chores are done quickly and correctly, so that the 'favorite' chores can be grabbed first!  The dawdlers are left with the undesirables.

Make a job board: 

Simply nail small finishing nails into a 1/2" thick piece of wood or cork board.  Write the child's name, with a nail below.  This is where your child will hang their job slip while working on it.  After it's passed off, they will hang the next job slip on top of the first on their nail.  

Hang the job board in a central location.

Tools needed to make your job slips:

Paper cutter, card stock (3x5 cards are easy to use), hole punch, pen or marker.

Store your job slips in a cup, or as I do, in a baseball card protector.  

I have a collection of jobs to choose from when I'm placing them on the job board before I go to bed at night (or first thing in the morning).

I use different color of card stock for different rooms, or type of tasks.  It's easier for me to keep them organized to choose from.

You can draw pictures for non-readers.

I choose jobs that take about 5 minutes each.  

Jobs for younger children could take less time, but should be simple 1-2 step tasks.  You can place jobs for younger children and older children to choose from out at the same time by distinguishing the slips of papers apart by colors, adding stickers, etc.  

THIS SYSTEM WORKS!  

Our family has been doing it for years.  We have shared it with friends and it works for them too!

It can work for you!

The key is FOLLOW THROUGH on the PARENT'S part.  You need to be around to pass off the chores.  At first you are training your kids, so it may feel like it takes more time than doing it yourself!  BE PATIENT.  You  may need to offer incentives or negative consequences to keep on track.  Our first year doing this, the jobs were required to be done before school.  The consequence if not done in time, was to have to do extra job slips after school.  Once the expectations are understood and consistently followed through, usually there are no consequences.

My older kids are even willing to help set out the job slips if I'm not on the ball!  

**A quick start for this job system, is to make a list of the chores needed done on a dry erase board.  Your kids can write their name next to the job they are doing.  You can erase the completed task or check it off when you pass it off.  Sometimes I'll do this system for the day when we are leaving for a camping trip and I need help packing more than clean baseboards!

***Remember, the beauty of this system is the competition between siblings to get to choose their favorite or perceived easiest jobs first!  That is why they can only choose one job at a time, and not get a second until the first is passed off, and so on.