Teaching Responsiblity with Chores

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As parents, when we think of back to school time we often make new goals for our families. It is a good opportunity to define new responsibilities and to give everyone a fresh start. We search for ways to foster independence and to make our homes run more smoothly. Throughout September we will be highlighting a few different aspects of teaching responsibility. This Sunday we are talking about CHORES! Help with chores, when done correctly, makes for happy moms and dads.

As with anything we are hoping to teach our children, assigning chores requires a fair amount of modeling, role playing, step sequencing, and positive reinforcement.

Before assigning chores it is necessary to consider what jobs may or may not be appropriate for your child.

~Mariel at Or So She Says has a post listing age appropriate chores for children.

~Joanne McNulty has put together lists of Appropriate Chores for Children by age. She has a list for 2-4 year olds, 4-7, 8-11, and 11-18.

Family Tips suggests 3 ways to Teach Your Children to Clean.

Goal for It offers free chore charts, however you do need to register to use the site.

Handipoints is a similar service useful for creating free chore charts.

Deck of Chores has come up with a clever card game to make chore time more fun! This game is appropriate for family members of all ages.

The Deck of Chores comes with instructional cards and suggested games, including Parent's Choice and Kid's Choice, however these colorful cards can be used in hundreds of different ways.

Our family has been experimenting with the Deck of Chores cards for about 3 months. Our chore aged children are 5 and 3. At this point we still spend quite a bit of time teaching what it means to do chores correctly. I will often pull out a card a day to display as the chore we will be practicing. Once the kids are successful with that particular chore it is put into the draw pile for more frequent independent use.

I love the size of these sturdy cards. They are large enough to hold the bold graphics that grab the kids attention. They are also easy enough to hold on to without losing. As we've used them we've found large wooden clips to hold the kid's "hand" while they are in play. However, I think it would be fantastic if Deck of Chores would market a clip of some sort that matches the cards to sell with the deck. Just an idea...

The suits on the cards are familiar as they are the same seen on a regular deck of cards, yet each of the 52 cards is accompanied by the name of a chore and a visual representation of that chore. After a brief introduction, even my three year old can easily identify which job she has been assigned based on the pictures.

Most of the suggested games encourage you to record your child's progress on a chore chart. You may want to reference the free services listed above or design your own.

Interested in hearing a sample game?
Game Option #1 for 2 or more players:
Each player is dealt seven cards. Place the deck down in the middle of the table. Turn over the top card to create a discard pile. During your turn you can discard any cards that match the number or suit of the card facing up. If you don' t have any cards to discard, draw from the deck until you can. The first person to get rid of all their card wins. The people with cards remaining perform the chores shown on their cards.

Thinking back, I sure wish our college sorority house would have had a deck of these cards. It may have saved us time and arguments about which responsibilities belonged to whom and maybe our house would have been clean enough to invite mom and dad in when they came to visit - smiles!!

The Deck of Chores promotes confidence, responsibility, and a sense of accomplishment while teaching children the valuable skills necessary for making a home run smoothly.

Deck of Chores is available for purchase in their online store for $14.99 a pack.
Or...you can WIN a deck of your own by entering their giveaway here on ABC & 123!

ENTRIES:

Choose any (or all) of the following options for entry. Leave a separate comment for each entry.
~Take a look at the Deck of Chores site
~Follow Deck of Chores on Twitter.
~Tweet about this giveaway using @DeckofCards in your text
~Tell us your least favorite household chore or your child's favorite chore
~Explain a game you could envision playing with these cards
~Publicly follow ABC & 123: A Learning Cooperative

This giveaway will close next Sunday, September 13th, at 10:30 PM EST.
The winner will be announced on Monday the 14th!

Good Luck & Happy Cleaning!!!

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