[Guitarmom]

I have 4 bio kids,and for the past few years i've assigned a weekly responsibility to them, including the normal stuff... making your bed, brushing teeth,etc.
I have one kid be the kitchen helper,one helps clean the bathrooms, one takes care of pets,and one is in charge of vacuuming/dusting. They have that job for one week then rotate.
Well lately things are slipping, they "forget" that they are responsible for certain things,and we are constantly reminding, add to that my 16yo has a part time McDonalds job and is gone a lot too.We do homeschool,so it's not like they're gone all day,either.

Right now I have a dry erase board on the fridge with the name next to the job. Any other ways to do this?
I also would like tips on how to remind kids to do their daily hygiene (brushing,flossing,wash face,etc.)
I'd really like to get this under control before we add more kids to the family.
thanks!

[Tudu]

We do our daily hygiene together. I role model and check them at the same time. You will have to teach alomost any kid you have in your home all over rom scratch. I had to actually put on a bathing suit and get inthe shower with each child and show them where and how on them and a doll for private parts. I was amazed that my children had no idea how to brush their teeth and had never in their 5 yrs in and out of care been to a dentist.

Chores are a real beast around here. We keep them until they are done well without reminders and I can assure you it takes a very long time. As they get the chore, I change them around and have them teach the next person to do it.

[2manyks]

i assign each child a chore and they keep that chore for a long time. seriously for at least a year and longer if i don't get around to changing it. they complain that they have been doing ______ for so long they hate it. i don't care. they still have to do it. that way i or my children never have to check the chart for whos turn it is to do _____. because they have been doing it for so long they cannot forget, LOL! i hate it when a new year comes and they talk me into changing the chores because i am too tired to remember who does what. and about someone being gone - they have to trade jobs with a sibling or else. they don't even risk the 'what else' because they believe me and my 'or else'!

[homeschoolingrocks]

We recently added 3 older kids to our family and so I have very fresh experience with establishing routines, hygiene habits, chores etc. We started out with a job wheel, rotating every time we did chores, but as someone else said I could never remember who should do what and it was way too much for me. So now they have pretty much permanent daily jobs, until they outgrow them or someone else grows into them. Every Sunday we have a house cleanup time and then we all do our jobs at the same time, with me judiciously dividing up the work and the older ones helping younger with their tasks as needed. Dishes chores are in teams of a washer and a rinser, and the youngest is the table setter and silverware putter-awayer. I recently had the brainstorm of using the calendar instead of a chart, or memory, to determine whose turn it is to wash or rinse. So one always washes on odd days and one on even etc. This could also work for other chores if two kids are rotating. This has eliminated tons of arguing over whose turn it is! It definitely helps if your current kids are with the program when the new ones arrive, but I try not to be too wedded to that idea because it puts such a burden on the "old" kids to be models for the new. And invariably they balk and become less "model" when the new ones arrive anyway. Our latest additions (7,10,12) came straight from their birth home, with NO experience of chores, sanitation etc! It has required long and diligent effort on my part, but now after 8 months they are pretty cooperative with chores, even make their beds, can clean up their rooms before bed, remember on their own to brush their teeth (sometimes), and best of all .. use toilet paper!!! though not all the time. My best advice is to keep plugging away at it all and remind yourself daily that progress will happen, even if very slowly.

[EmmaLeigh2882]

Growing up there was three of us kids- we were also home schooled. When we first stared to home school, my mom sat us all down with a list of all daily chores that needed to be done in order for a house hold to run ( we were about 8,10,14 years old). Little did we know she was training all of us for life. Being able to run the house at age 10 is a great feeling. My mom literally divided all the chores in three's ( right down to three meals a day). We rotated ever week along with our seating arrangements at the table ( clockwise) so who ever sat in a certain seat all week and a certain set of chores for that whole week. ( included making meals- setting the table for that meal and all the clean up for that meal).
All the chores were usually grouped to keep related items together, or at least items usually found in the same area of the house. House inspection came before we were dismissed for school. If we didn't clean well enough, or forgot to do something we were made to do it again before we could go on. It took my mom about 20 minutes to walk thru the house and verify everything was acceptable- we all did the walk through with her. Since we all knew this was going to happen we didn't bother taking a short cut. If my mom noticed we were slacking on purpose we got chores added to our regular chores- for the whole week. You didn't try to get out the easy way very often.

We were each responsible for our own rooms.

I assume that the same thing could be done with more children- just divide up the chores among 4 instead of three- or how ever many children you have. ( It would help at first to label each seat with a number and have a list of the chores that go with that number)

Right after breakfast and before school started we had mandatory clean up time. ( Usually 1/2 to 1 hour or less- ever day) If we didn't get all our chores done ( except for laundry which could only be started in that amount of time!) We would get extra "yucky" chores for after school. ( washing the base boards in a certain room, clean out fridge, organize pantry, pull weeds, etc)
Every Saturday we did a big/deep clean ( changed sheets/ towels, mow lawn, wash the car, food shop, etc) Everyone pitched in and helped do each project and items were assigned as the job was being done. ( usually 2 hours of work each person in the family)

[Guitarmom]

I like the idea... but I personally couldn't stand the whining if my kids have their jobs that long... they can barely make it a week without complaining they are "tired of doing dishes",etc.
also it woudldn't be fair - the kitchen helper has 10x more work than the one who cleans the bathrooms 2x/week,or the one who feeds the pets.

[Guitarmom]

What are the ages of all your kids - I like the idea of a "team" . I know families with 7 or 8 kids that do teams,and it works well. they often pair up the youngest w/oldest,etc.
What different types of jobs do you have them do?