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Chore Cards, Good to Keep Your Life on Track!!
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Once upon a time, there was a mother who had 4 children. She wondered why her house was always trashed and she always felt behind! She decided that it was because she and her children were not doing their work in a routine. They would wait until one room got so bad that it would take all day to clean it! So she set out to make some chore cards out of index cards and crayons for each child along with a pocket chart on the wall where they could move their To Do cards to the Completed slot. Things were amazing for a while, the chores got done quickly because they had not let it get too far out of hand! The children were extremely motivated to get their chores done quickly so that they could do other things that they loved! Well, something happened and this mother FORGOT about those chore cards! They got out of the habit of using them. She had 2 more babies and kept not using them, wondering why it was so hard to keep her house in order AND get the kids educated. She could all but forget about getting anything done on her many sidetracked hobbies as she was always swimming in chaos, trying to keep her home running.
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As I’m sure you guessed, that mother was me! Why oh why do I find something that works for me and then quit using it? I have a problem with not being perceptive. I tend to not notice things, sometimes not until they’re way out of hand. My children will be arguing and I won’t notice…until they’re so loud they’re on my nerves! or the table is getting cluttered and I won’t notice until it’s trashed! It’s something I’m slowly getting better at, but sometimes I have to really force myself to notice things.
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Last week, I decided it was time to revamp our chore cards. I started by pulling out my list of chores that we need to be doing in order to keep our home running in a mostly orderly manner. I decided I wanted them a little nicer looking this time and that I would print them. I wanted to paste some clipart on each card, to fancy it up a little and to give my early reader a good guess at what it’s going to say. I had planned to print it on cardstock and cut them out, but discovered I was out of cardstock, so instead, I printed them on regular paper and glued that to an index card. A little more work, but my little helpers were eager to play in the glue anyway! We don’t have a color printer, so ours are just grayscale. I figured that they could color them in if they want to pretty them up a little more! I had planned to hole punch them and put them on a ring so they could carry them around the house while doing their chores, but the kids said no to that idea. They want them to where they can put it into the completed folder, so they felt like they had accomplished something!
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Here’s an example of what a few of them look like:
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My children won’t be doing every one of these every day. Some of them will be split up according to what they’re able to do. Some things, I may have in their chart to do but if I get to it first, they won’t have to do it (that always excites them! LOL). Some of them, if we’re having an extra busy day, we’ll skip! It’s not a rigid rule, it’s a routine….one that helps me out by great measures to stay on track at remembering what we’re supposed to be doing! I plan to make some more for my 2 year old with some vey easy chores on it and some more specific ones for me as well.
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Now it’s time to start using them!
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Would you like to use my cards instead of having to recreate it? You can do so by going here or here.
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Serving Joyfully says
July 1, 2013 at 2:33 pmThanks so much for sharing this! I've been looking for a set of cards that have what I want, and this is exactly it.
Sidetracked Sarah says
July 2, 2013 at 9:30 amI'm so glad this was helpful to you! You're welcome!
Babychaser says
February 6, 2013 at 8:10 pmI am you when you had 4 kids and things were out of control! Thanks for sharing.
Sidetracked Sarah says
February 6, 2013 at 11:30 pmYou are so welcome!
Sidetracked Sarah says
January 3, 2012 at 1:31 pmIf you go here: https://sidetrackedsarah.files.wordpress.com/2011/… then you should be able to print from there. For some reason, when I converted it to .pdf my lines disapepared. If that messes you up, let me know and I can email them to you instead. I hope that helps!
Sidetracked Sarah says
November 2, 2011 at 11:02 am@Christine Hmm, I'm sorry you're having trouble printing. Do you think it's on my end? I went and tried and it all worked for me. What happens when you try?
Christine says
October 31, 2011 at 8:57 pmLove this idea — and the staying on track…why is that so difficult?!?? I'm a mom of 5 and I tried to print your cards, because "why re-invent the wheel?", and because you offered 😉 I am unable to print them, not sure why :(Thank you!
Handy Man, Crafty Wo says
October 29, 2011 at 5:55 pmThanks for linking to Wicked Awesome Wednesday! These look so DOABLE! I'm sharing with several friends!
MommaHen says
October 27, 2011 at 6:10 pmThese are super cute, I bet they work too!
Marilyn says
October 26, 2011 at 8:53 pmThis is so awesome..Great idea..love it..I found you over at Wow me Wed and had to stop in..Officially following ya with smiles..Great blog you have here with tons of creativity..Hope u can visit me sometime via https://theartsygirlconnection.blogspot.com TY. PS: Project Pink Blog Link Party is this weekend the 30th, would love for you to join over 50+ bloggers go PINK for breast cancer..You can find out more here..Wishing u a great week.. https://theartsygirlconnection.blogspot.com/2011/1…
Sidetracked Sarah says
October 26, 2011 at 11:44 am@Shortney TobinI don't have a pic yet…..as I hadn't decided if it's how I want to keep it. I guess I could post what we have for now. Basically, I stapled 2 envelopes on a piece of cardstock and put "To Do" and "Completed" on it…and put their name in the middle. My envelopes are too big for my paper though, so I pbly need to change things around.
Sidetracked Sarah says
October 26, 2011 at 8:27 am@Zanre5LOL, glad to know that I'm not all alone in not noticing things!! Thanks for stopping by today!
Shortney Tobin says
October 26, 2011 at 4:29 amWhat a great idea! I have used the check-off marker chart for E and have never been faithful with it. If i could print them out and have him more them to "completed" that would be really fun. Do you have a pic of how you use yours? i am gonna do this soon!
MarlaJen says
October 26, 2011 at 3:37 amThank you! Our house gets easily out of control with just our three. I'm loving this idea!
Christi says
October 26, 2011 at 3:02 amI have always drawn the pic out for my littles. They love it! But, this would save me oodles of time! Great job!
Our Country Road says
October 26, 2011 at 2:52 amAwesome!!! New momma of 4 here…thanks so much!
Anonymous says
October 26, 2011 at 1:18 amlol! I love the part about why do I find something that works and quit using it? I do this all the time! This year I actually started my school year with a working MOTH schedule. My husband dearly desires that I would be more scheduled and not just routine oriented. 😉 After many years of trying this year I got one that I could manage…start to finish. Kids got more done. I got more done. I wasn't tired. The kids had more free time. The house was clean. School for EVERYONE was done everyday. Then for NO reason whatsoever, I quit. Life has been chaos ever since and I have been lucky to accomplish school with 1/2 the children in a day. UUUGGGGHHH! Maybe I too should return to something that was working!Laney
Amy @ Raising Arrows says
October 26, 2011 at 12:16 amThank you! 😉
Zanre5 says
October 25, 2011 at 11:52 pmI love this idea. You sound so much like me! I don't notice things until they get out of control. I look around and wonder how my clean room turned into this mess, how did I not see this before it was THIS! Thanks for the tip!