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.
Wondering how to teach your kids responsibility? Looking for ways to instill good homekeeping skills even in your little ones? Want just a little bit of help around the house?
Me, too!
Chores are good for kids. Not only do they help them learn home management and responsibility, but having regular household responsibilities gives them a vested interest in the workings of the household.
We are still a work in progress over here. But, we’ve got a few systems that are working. One of the regular parts of our day is The Morning High Five. The kids must do these five things before school each morning. I made up this chart and have copies of it plastered all over the house.
There’s no excuse for not knowing what you need to do each morning.
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 the high five routine…what an awesome idea, and something easy that say, my 4 1/2 year old can manage. Going to start this ASAP!
Great idea, Cathy! Love the zone thing. I think my boys would embrace that as well…. well, as much as they could "embrace" their chores…. LOL
I think you're right about the change-it-up-so-that-it-stays-fresh-and-exciting.
Kind of like how we moms might change our planner system or change how we do to do list. Something new tends to be inspiring.
I love seeing everyone's ideas – thanks so much for sharing it!
We love routines at our house, but "chores" is one area that I think needs to be refreshed periodically to keep everyone enthusiastic about it! I love the simplicity of this high-five idea; I bet my kids will love it, too.
One system that works well with our kids was "zone duty." Each child was assigned a "zone" and it rotated each day – kitchen, bathrooms, living room, etc. We were at a stage where we really needed to work independently =) and they did something different each day so it didn't get boring. I also think just having a new name helped! They thought it was cool to have a "zone."
I like the sound of the envelope system, Jenny. I'll keep it in mind next time we switch systems.
Kelly, with help a three year-old can do many of the things mentioned here. I've had two year olds who helped empty the dishwasher and knew how to run our cordless sweeper. I think probably the most important thing is that they learn the routine. Knowing that things should be picked up at bedtime and then learning how to do different parts of that as they grow is invaluable.
The routines also help kids feel stable.
What is a good age to start chores/responsibilities like this? My oldest just turned three.
We use the envelope system at my house. I choose chores for the day and put them in that childs envelope, then they can do them throughout the day, but by the end of the night, the envelope should be empty. Some choose to do them right away, some later and some space it out. But they can even do extra chores to earn more chore money. This is what is working for us right now!
Very cool idea. I like it!!!
I love this idea!! I have been doing the system for myself where I have 3 Most Important Tasks I have to do a day. And I find that I get more done than that usually, but I feel accomplished even if I get the 3 done and don't feel overwhelmed. So I think breaking things down to 3-5 items makes it easier. I love the simplicity of this and that it's a visual reminder.
This is a great idea! I really like the simplicity of it.
I love the last part of your post. I am always looking for a new routine to help me teach my kids a little household responsibility but it always gets out of hand when things get crazy around the house, especially when Mommy feels pressure about ANYTHING 🙂 Thanks for the new idea! I was told to teach my kids diligence and I think about that all the time because I myself am not a diligent person but I have to figure that out before they will.