Chore Charts

I've been trying to become a better housekeeper. It's the area of my life where I fail the most, among many others. Now that my girls are older and able to entertain themselves for extended periods of time, and I don't have to keep an eagle eye on them constantly, I really have no excuse. I am crazy OCD about some things, but not everything. I like to say my OCD is bi-polar, or has amnesia.
So, I've been taking steps to create better habits. I don't want to hate house work, or have an overwhelming amount to do at any one time. I want to pick things up without realizing it. I want to automatically get up to wash dishes after supper. I'm also working on my attitude towards housework. It's not going to be fun. Ever. But it's not that bad, and I want my girls to see that I do everything with a cheerful heart. Even dishes.
I also want to instill these habits into the girls. I thought something laid back, do-able, and visual would be the best for them. So I browsed Pinterest, gleaned ideas from a few things, and created this "Chore Chart."

 

 

I went to the promised land, I mean Hobby Lobby, and got three thin metal sheets, and three 12x16 picture frames. I had to cut about 2 inches off the metal sheets with tin snips, and then spray painted them pink. I put the glass from the frames behind the metal to keep the frame full and so the tin didn't push back into the frame when the girls were using them. I used my new Cricut (love!) to cut out their names, then went ahead and sprayed a little glitter on them, girls need glitter, and glued the letters on with krazy glue.

For the "chores," the girls and I made a list of all the chores that were appropriate for their age and abilities, and I found corresponding pictures on clipart sites. I krazy glued each picture to some little wooden plaques, probably about 2"x3", and then glued magnets on the back. I still intend to modge podge the tops, or something, because the edges of the cardstock will come up at some point, sooner rather than later.

The girls did really well with the first day of official chores. I only plan on assigning two to three on a daily basis, but there will be days where we'll ALL have more chores to do. I really hope it sticks.