Children's Responsibilities

So I haven't blogged all summer! It's busy around here- and I'm enjoying it. The first week of summer was an adjustment though!

I just read Christina's blog, and it spurred this post.

My children have responsibilities, and each summer I've had a different approach to handling it. This is what we have done this year:

 

My 3 oldest children (ages 10, 8 and 6) have a set of 4 magnets. They each have their own color on the front and black on the back when you flip it over. I bought the magnets at Learning Palace. I used my label maker to print out their responsibilities- learning, music, cleaning, outside.

I talked to each child individually about what they needed to do to flip over each magnet. But basically, learning is writing, playing a math game, etc. Music is piano or violin practice. Outside is to play outside (one of my children doesn't choose to do this otherwise. He'd rather stay inside with his Legos all day). Cleaning is to do their "dinner jobs" and clean a bathroom (yes- we clean each bathroom everyday. Sometimes more than once! I have a can of Clorox wipes in each bathroom- love them!)

These are our dinner jobs:

During the summer we do these jobs after both lunch and dinner. During the school year- just after dinner. They keep the set of 2 jobs for a week, then we rotate.The first job (wash table, sweep floor, and clean chairs) is the food clean up. The second job (Loft, Scavenger Hunt, and Play room) is the area for them to pick up. (Scavenger Hunt means to walk through the downstairs hallways and pick up anything on the floor to put away.) Dinner jobs was hard to start at first- but now we've been doing it for over 3 years. At first we used my husband's old trophy that he was going to throw away as a reward each night. We would watch and see who did their jobs without complaining, did them quickly, and well. That person was awarded the trophy for a day. It worked well for awhile. Then the person on the top of the trophy broke off, and one child wanted the trophy more than the others, so everyone started giving it to him. We eventually let it sit in his room and we don't use it anymore.

We also have an hour of "Book Time" everyday. During my younger children's nap's, the older ones go in their rooms and read to themselves (or listen to books on tape). This gives me a chance to get something done and get dinner started. I have also started having "Mom ad Me" time during that time. Once a week, a child stays downstairs during Book Time with me and we do something together.

 

If they flip over all their magnets- then they earn their "screen time" for the next day.

 

We still get some complaints, but they seem to really enjoy flipping the magnets over (and playing with them- we are currently missing one).

I saw this SUMMER BINGO idea and it looks like a lot of fun. I think I'll try it out next year. I especially love the squares where it encourages playing with younger siblings.

We still have a month of summer left! Yea! (I'm not ready for the homework to start yet!)