Chores for a preschooler

Turtle recently turned four.  She's always been a very capable, independent young lady.  This past week she stepped up to the plate while I was ill and really helped her daddy around the house.  The helpfulness has continued now that I am in recovery mode. In fact, her first words to me yesterday morning were "Mommy, I made my bed!"  I decided the time was right to introduce a chore chart.

All the chores I selected are things I know she can do with minimal assistance from us:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Make Bed
Clothes in hamper
put away papers
Put toys away
Make school lunch						X	X
Lay out tomorrow’s clothes
sweep under table

This chart fits on a standard piece of paper and can be printed out at the beginning of the week.  As each chore is finished, we will put a sticker in the box.  The sticker will be a way to visually recognize what has been done and what has not been done.  I will not be telling her "make your bed every day for the week and you can have a treat."  I will find a way of acknowledging the work she has done to help her take pride in her accomplishments.  It will probably start with "Good for you -you made your bed everyday this week!" and work up to "Oh my goodness, you have made your bed every day for a month -we should celebrate! Let's make a new batch of play dough."


Once we have worked with the chore chart for a while, I'll introduce the concept of paid chores, but I think I'll save those thoughts for another post  :) 


Do your kids have chores?  What age did they start?



And please don't call her CinderTurtle -we're not keeping her home from the ball or having fun in order to do our work  :-P

Motivation in a Jar

I'm horrible with lists.  I start one, set it down, then promptly lose track of it.

I've used the task list on gmail.  I have a harder time losing it, but those lists can get awfully long.  Its not very satisfying either when it's time to cross something off.

So I decided to try writing down things I wanted to get done on pretty pieces of paper. 

I chose some fun things too.

I mixed them together & put them in the jar.  I decided when I had the time, I could just reach in & pull out a task to do.  Some things were quick & easy.  With some I added a 15 minute time limit.  I assumed it would take me a few days to work through my jar o'chores.  Guess what -it was exciting, it was thrilling!  I was eager to see what I would pull out next AND I blew through all but 3 items in one afternoon!  I guess you can put motivation in a jar for when you need it  :D