The dining room is rarely used and not very messy, so I didn't include it. Since we have six children capable of carrying the responsibility of a chore, this works perfectly. Each child can be responsible for a zone. I wanted to rotate the chores but still allow each child the opportunity to learn how to effectively clean each zone before rotating to the next one. We determined that a week works well.
I wrote on 6 index cards the schedule. For example:
Week #1
Week #2 will have Mojo in the kitchen and everyone else shifts down the list. After six weeks, every child has had every chore for one full week. If everyone does what they are supposed to do, all public areas of the house, including laundry is done. Each child is responsible for homework, zone chore and their room. I have a list of penalty chores. If they do not do what is expected, then a penalty chore is added to their responsibilities. Penalty chores are NO fun, like scrubbing the inside of a trash can, organizing the silverware drawer, cleaning out the van, etc.
Now, Jen's real question was how to get them to do the chore in a timely manner. I don't think I have gotten the timely manner part yet. I would love to hear from all of you. How do you get your children to do their chores quickly and without procrastinating? The only suggestion I have is to offer a reward. On the weekends we usually offer an incentive to do their work right away and with excellence. Usually it is family movie night or an ice cream cone or a family game night. That's right...we don't mind bribing our children.
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