Getting the girls organised ...

I found last year that each morning I was forever asking my girls if they have brushed their teeth, their hair, made their beds etc. before we got on with schooling. And most of the time they hadn't. I think they thought where's the rush, it's not like they had to get ready to head off to school. They do know they have to be at the school table dressed though. Then again in the evening, same thing, I had to remind them to do what I would call basic things, plus clean up the mess they had made that day.




This year in order to save me from being a nag I came up with a Task Sheet. This includes some chores that they are expected to perform in order to earn their pocket money, such as unloading the dishwasher, putting out the rubbish and recycling daily, and so on. Also as the girls are getting older we felt that they could be a little more responsible and helpful. So this year they are supposed to vacuum, dust their rooms, change their linen and tidy their bathroom etc. They only have to do one thing a day and to be honest I am helping them a bit in order to teach them. We have had a couple of funnies trying to find Agent Smelly lost in her duvet (doonah) cover whilst trying to replace the clean one over the duvet. 

Front of Task Sheet

Back of Task Sheet

Both girls have different sheets and tasks, and in some cases if there's an X on one sheet then the other often has to do it and vice versa. Or they simply may have to do that task maybe once or twice a week or such. They go into the Personal Planners that they designed and that we made up and they simply tick them off as they go. So far they have been going really well with them. I think they just enjoy ticking off things as they go along.




We are still nutting the tasks out and seeing how long the chores take etc as I don't want to make them do "hard labour" just a quick clean. and learn to be helpful and tidy and clean!

Planners - they also have calenders and blank pages for notes and such in them

In case anyone is wondering the weekly allowance each girl receives is based on her age. i.e. Miss 7 gets $3.50 and Miss 9 gets $4.50. They seem happy with that and the only way they don't get their full allowance is if they do not complete the chores assigned to them (unless they are sick, or they didn't complete because of circumstance beyond their control). I do not take money away for bad or rude behaviour. To my way of thinking if they have completed a job then they should get paid for it. They have other punishments, IE loss of a favoured toy or activity for unacceptable behaviour.