Kids, Chores, and Routines – Give them a High Five!
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Looking to help your kids accomplish chores and achieve routines? A Morning High Five and a Bedtime High Five can help!
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No matter the size of your family, whether you have one child or ten, there will always be work to do.
Dishes to wash and put away, laundry to fold, meals to prepare — those things don’t go away. In fact, depending on what interests your teens exhibit as they grow — culinary arts, football, music, social butterfly-ism — these basic household tasks may increase, though your child is no longer a toddler, needing you to help them at every turn.
To maintain your sanity as well as the smile on your face, it’s good to have some basic routines and chores that kids are required to do. Not only does this help your workload, but it also helps them learn responsibility and home management. Unless they become multi-millionaires, they will always need to pick up after themselves.
Teach them now and save yourself and their future spouses a boatload of grief.
I feel like I’ve tried almost every kid chore program in the book. Sometimes with success, sometimes not.
What works in one season and the current developmental stages of my kids doesn’t always work with others.
And different kids are capable of varying levels of responsibility. My oldest could be handed a list of twenty chores and get them done by lunch. The others? Not so much.
In my efforts to simplify things for everyone concerned, I made these charts. Each chart, one for morning, one for evening, represents the bare minimum that needs to get done at those times of day. (I did not originate this idea, but I have no idea where I got it. If you do, let me know in the comments so I can give credit where it’s due.)
Each child is expected (on a good day) to do all the Morning High 5 by school time each morning and the Bedtime High 5 by lights out.
Morning High Five:
1. Bed = Make it. Change sheets once a week or whenever I remember, whichever comes first.
2. Breakfast = Eat it and clear your dishes
3. Clothes = Get dressed, put away jammies, put away clean clothes.
4. Teeth = Brush and floss.
5. Kitchen jobs = Everyone has at least one of the following: empty dishwasher, load dishwasher, wipe counters, empty trash and recycling, clear and wipe table, sweep or shark floor.
Bedtime High Five:
1. Shower and Jammies = Bigger boys take care of this themselves, my three littler ones need help.
2. Clothes put away = Dirty clothes goes to laundry, any clean stuff gets put away.
3. Teeth = Brush and floss.
4. Tidy Up = General pick up of living areas and bedrooms.
5. Story = The ideal is “bed by 8:30, lights out by 9.” Kids can read books in bed during that interval or if we have a read aloud going, I’ll read to them.
I know from experience that if I make my expectations clear to the kids and ACTUALLY FOLLOW UP ON IT, then we see great success. Truth be told, I get distracted by other things and these routines often fall by the wayside, only to be picked up again.
Teaching children self-discipline takes self-discipline, doesn’t it?
I can certainly grow in that. But, having a little chart to look at certainly helps put it in the front of my mind.
What do you do to help your kids learn responsibility? What routines work well at your house? We’d love to hear it.
Want more ideas on getting your family’s act together? Get a copy of my book, Organizing Life as MOM, a 173 page document full of printable planning sheets for every need. Homeschooling and blogging add-on packs also available.
I love,love,love this! What do you suggest for the rest of the house? I have 8 kids ages 21-3. I can’t seem to get them motivated to keep it clean! How do I motivate and not nag?
At our house, chores are required before kids can do other things. Some will lag from time to time, but they don’t get to do the thing they want to do until they’ve done their work.
I am a mother of 6, soon to be seven, under 11. I have implemented different charts for chores over the years and nothing has really worked for our family. I love this idea, the way you use the hand looks like this will work for us. Thank you for the idea.
This is a really helpful article, thank you! My son has regular chores he is expected to do, but other than making his bed and opening his curtains in the morning, (and brushing his teeth, obviously!) they mostly aren’t assigned a specific time of day. I think I may adopt a more specific approach and expect certain things in the morning and certain things before bedtime.
But I also so recognise the need for the parental discipline as well. Our tasks often fall by the wayside too, and I know that’s something I need to work on. I really appreciate you sharing that you’re the same (this makes me feel much better about needing to work on it too) 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing this…I LOVE IT!!!! We do the exact chores on your high five chart so it won’t be much of a change =)
Thanks for this AWESOME idea!!! I found this on Pinterst last week and we’ve been doing it for a few days. I also turned it into a contest! The first kid done with their High 5s get to paint their hand and put a ‘High 5’ on a poster. Each kid has their own color, and the kid with the most hand prints at the end of the month gets a date night with Mom and Dad.
They LOVE it! Instead of stomping and whining about their am/pm duties, now they race around and can’t wait to get started on them! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!
That is a brilliant way to motivate! If you blog it, I’d love to see it!
Just came across your website because of pinterest. I love this high five plan. It is so easy for kids of any age to use and I can’t wait to start using it with our daily routine with my 4 yr. old. Thank you for sharing!
Hi there! I recently saw a photo of your High Five charts on Pinterest, and am delighted to have ‘discovered’ your lovely blog that way. You’ve inspired me to try this with my toddlers – you can read my post about our version of your charts here: http://joyfulmamasplace.blogspot.com/2011/07/making-it-fun-to-get-things-done.html
Greetings from Sunny South Africa!
I just did this with my 4 yr. old twins and my 3 yr. old son and they loved doing it! I think it is a great idea! Thanks for posting!
I like the High 5 idea. I’m gonna try that with my kids (ages 6.5,4.5, and 14 months).