Cyclical Nature of Chores
How do you and the children in your life tackle chores?
📝☑️ To-do! ☑️📝
We love lists around here.
I wrote up our family to-do list, with everyone's input. Our 8 year old decided who would do what. We spoke about the word "delegate".
Del-e-gate. It's a fancy word for giving everyone work to do.
Our 8 year old wrote everyone's first initial next to the chores that they needed to do. Everyone has been checking off their tasks as they complete them.
Delegation! Cooperation!
We have some great helpers around here.
This exercise has been incredibly effective, especially helping them to understand that they are not responsible for doing everything all by themselves. That can be overwhelming.
The unfortunate reality of chores is that chores are cyclical.
They're never really complete.
You can get all of one step done, and feel great about it!
But there's always more waiting in the wings. And that's ok.
When we help each other, the work goes faster.
#WeAreProblemSolvers
#Helpers
#teamwork
By thinking of them as a cycle, we set up our expectations differently. We know more will come. If we think of chores as discreet events with a beginning and an end, we set ourselves up for overwhelm.
Let's set ourselves up for success.
Let's learn the steps of our chore cycles and keep them rolling.
Let's break our favorite chores down! We'll share some photos, too.
It needs to be done, so let's have fun while we do it.
Dishes
Where are you in the Dishes cycle?
Wash, put away, use, wash put away use...
We like to sing when we wash our dishes by hand. We also enjoy using a lot of fun bubbles. Sometimes it takes a little longer to do our dishes when we make it extra fun, but it's worth it!
Here's a link to a video of us singing the song together:
Let's think about how water moves with gravity as we do our dishes. Water sticks to itself. It can overfill a cup. When we add bubbles to the water those bubbles behave differently.
How does water behave in space?
Let's watch a calming video of astronauts interacting with water on the International Space Station. Here is a link!
When we ring out a wet rag on Earth, the water falls. That's what our 10 year old is showing you in this quick video.
But... What happens to it in space?
Check out this video from the Canadian Space Agency:
It's fun to think about how gravity impacts the various properties of water.
Laundry
Where are you in the Laundry cycle?
Wash, put away, use, wash put away use...
Use, wash, put away!
There are really a few more steps.
Run around the house, gathering as much dirty laundry as we can find. Toss it all into the washer.
Tip: Use small laundry baskets. They fill up faster. Kids - and adults - carry them easier.
Can't find a sturdy basket in the store? Look in the garden section, or at a plant nursery. They sell reinforced baskets that can hold heavy plants and soil. They usually come with a cheap plastic liner that is easily removed. They often sell them in a variety of sizes that nest, and work incredibly well as laundry baskets that take a real beating. Here's a photo of ours.
Here's a photo of two kids filling a washing machine. There's lots of little skills along the way there, too.
Scoop out the right amount of soap. We used a quarter cup of dry soap for our load today. Here's a photo of our children using a measuring cup and leveling off the soap before adding it to the wash.
Here's a video from a few years ago where we moved clothes from washer to dryer while singing a song. We had a different house then, and a different washer and dryer. But we still sing the song!
Sometimes instead of using our dryer, we hang out laundry on a line.
Here's a quick video of us hanging up some laundry.
Why Line Dry?
You have a washer💦 and a dryer.💨
Why do you take the time to hang so much laundry? 🧺
See how she has to pinch her fingers to attach the clip to the blanket and the line?👏
See how she plays with the blanket in the breeze?
See how she comes back to check on the progress?
See her smile as she cuddles with the warm sun-kissed blanket when it is complete?🌞
She feels a sense of ownership over the process.
And one day when the power goes out or the drier breaks down, she will know how to hang a line, clip everything to it, and let Mr. Sun ☀️ do his work.
Dexterity and Patterns
We use pinching wooden clothes pins when hanging up our laundry. They can be fun and challenging for little fingers to move around. We build our finger strength when we use our pinching clothes pins. Here's a video of a little math we did while hanging laundry. We think about where we must position the basket so our laundry falls in (mentally calculate trajectories in line with the gravity vector). Then we arrange the pins in patterns on the basket edge, and count them. We make fun patterns with our clothes pins.
When our laundry is all dry, we need to fold them!
Sometimes we like to use a folding aid to make it easy on us. We have taped together three pieces of cardboard. We open up our cardboard and set our laundry to fold inside. Then we fold over one side. We open it up, move our laundry up, and fold it again.
Or you can just pick something up just right and fold it with the help of gravity. Here's a video of our Gravity Fold. (Folding with one hand, with the help of gravity.)
People ask me why I sort my laundry by size and type before folding. It's far easier for us to fall into a groove and get them done rapidly.
Also, sorting the laundry and laying it flat gives the children a set task to practice over and over, to get it down right.
Sometimes we roll our laundry instead of folding. We do this mostly with the clothes that we find difficult to fold.
Here's a song we sing when we roll our clothes. "Rolling, rolling, rolling"
When we roll our clothing, we like to put a hair band around them, to keep them rolled up. That way when we go through our drawers looking for an outfit to wear, the clothes don't unroll. It's easier to keep the drawers tidy.
Now, don't forget to encourage those children put their folded laundry away! Here's a photo of a child holding wash cloths as she puts them away.
We have another fun song that we sing. This one is in French. The lyrics go: "Aujourd'hui, faire la lessive."
Did you finish all that hard work?
Don't worry, we'll have more dirty laundry to start our laundry cycle again soon!
Here is a table with folding laid out and ready to fold, with a child folding. They like it when I sort them by type before they start folding so it's less overwhelming.
Sorting and Keeping Score
Let's play a laundry math game!
We have a big pile of clean laundry, and a basket for each person.
Everyone's age is how many points we get when we toss one item of clothing into their basket. Phoebe gets 2 points for all of Miranda's clothes, and 6 points for each of hers. If she finds Daddy's clothes to sort she gets 40 points! Io gets points when she does this, too. Let's add it up as we go and see who gets the most points the fastest.
Mixing laundry and math is fun.
Routine
Do you have a cleaning routine?
Share your tips!
Here is something I wrote a few years back. This is no longer our routine, but it needs to be.
Cleaning is part of our family's routine. Every evening after dinner, before we go to bed, we have a list of chores that we need to go through. They earn time to watch a show on Netflix before they go to bed if they do everything. Trash, Dishes, Laundry, Toy Cleanup, and Vacuuming are done before bed. We also consider getting in jammies and brushing teeth without argument part of our chore list. Here's how it works: Children pick up trash and consolidate it into one bag, which we leave by the front door for Daddy to take out. So all of the trash all over our home is taken out each evening. The children look over the house for any dishes that got left out throughout the day, and make sure they get into the kitchen sink. Then one of them helps me as I load up the dishwasher and start it. All of the dirty laundry and towels from around the house must be picked up and put into the washer by the children. The children open the dryer and fold and put away laundry, with my help and/or encouragement if needed. All of the toys and books must be organized and put in their place. Then we vacuum. We do a goofy singing "Quality Control" check (To the tune of Creature Report in Octobauts), and if everything is done properly, Daddy goes to bed and the kiddos get to watch a show or two with me before we crash to sleep. Our 3 year old runs around calling "Check" as she does all of her work. It's adorable and it honestly keeps us motivated... We wake up to a clean house in the morning and I don't feel over-burdened.
#tidy
Overcoming Overwhelm
Chores can be overwhelming for children. The mere mention of a chore can make them flop on the floor in a puddle of distressed tears, or lash out in a fit of rage.
But we can get beyond this. Here are some things that have worked for us.
- Break it down. Each chore is made up a lot of little things. Focus on one little bit at a time.
- Develop the core skills involved with each chore.
- Build confidence. Every time they do some little bit of a chore right, point it out. Help them to see that they can.
- Routine. If they know their chore needs to be done at a certain point every day, it becomes routine, and eventually a habit.
- Look for points where they struggle. Work on those fine details.
- Be there with them. Teamwork makes everything feel easier. Be ready to lend a hand.
Have you found a way to make chores easier at your home lately?
Share about it!
HR Mom's Tip!
Here's some advice from HR Mom.
1. Get a pile of sticky notes or index cards. Any color, any size. Get a pen. Any pen.
2. Look around your home.
3. Write the most urgent kid-approriate chore on a sticky note.
4. Write the second-most urgent chore on another sticky.
5. Do this until each kid has three.
6. Place them prominently.
7. Announce to each kid that when all three are complete, they can (fill in the blank thing they want to do)." or, say "These must be complete by THIS time to earn tomorrow's screen time. Each day, we earn tomorrow's reward." Whatever works best for your home.
8. Feel free to adopt phrases like,
"Clean before Screens" or
"We work hard, THEN we play hard."
9. Repeat daily until they move out.
THE END.
All sales are final.
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Jokes aside, if you feel overwhelmed by the idea of a having to create and maintain a "chore SYSTEM," you are likely overcomplicating things for yourself.
If a set, recurring list of chores doesn't work for your family - especially during a Pandemic - no one is the boss of you. The kids can receive a new random potluck list of chores each morning. It's like a box of chocolates...
You'll be amazed how quickly your house can be transformed if each kiddo completes three small chores per day.
"Three chores a day. We work then we play."
I just made that up. Trademark pending.
#HRmom
#delegate
#teamwork
#ownership
P.S. If needed, have a 4th card that you place face down that says, "BONUS"
Explain that if they choose to whine or complain, they receive the BONUS chore!
{Pic below is from Jamie, a previously exhausted Mom turned satisfied customer:}
Practical, By Default's Tips!
Jen at Practical By Default has some great advice for getting children into the habit of cleaning.
I love her advice for making cleaning stations for kids around the house.
Here's a snippet:
"These stations are designated areas in your home where your kids can store their kid-friendly cleaning supplies and complete their assigned tasks."
"Remember to stick to your cleaning routines for kids by creating a cleaning schedule, posting it in a visible location, and making cleaning a priority."
Read more here:
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