My kids and chores are akin to gazelles and lions. Because lions attack gazelles and eat them for breakfast. except that my kids aren't the lions. My kids are the gazelles, and the chores are what's eating them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
It's frustrating for all involved. (Mostly for me.) So I did something about it.
I got all super organized on them and have a list of daily chores for each child, plus chore wheels for rotating tasks, plus I have listed the rules (which includes mostly stuff like "no whining"), and to top it all off I have a chart to fill in with stickers so that for every 3 days of doing the chores and following the rules they get a prize. Right now our prizes are Squinkies. Because toyrus.com has them on super mega sale, and you can
get a two pack for $.50 if you buy 10.
For anyone who's confused on how to make a rotating chore wheel, here is how I made mine:
First I created the wheel pieces. I was going to make a printable to go with this, but it really all depends on how many kids you want on the wheel and which chores and too many other variables to make a printable. This is the wheel for my two older kids so I have a wheel for loading and unloading dishes, and then a smaller wheel with bigger chores. Plus the biggest wheel for the top.
Then I covered the fronts of my wheel pieces with clear contact paper, because I knew they would be touched by little fingers every day and I want them to last the whole summer.
I also put a small piece of clear contact paper on the insides of my cutouts on the top wheel. Just for stability and fancy-ness.
Then I put a brad through the middle of all the wheel pieces. The biggest wheel with the cutouts on top, then the smallest wheel, and the load/unload wheel on the very back. When you're creating the pieces for your wheel you're going to want the other wheels to show through the cutouts once they're hooked together. I did this digitally, but you could also cut out plain wheels, and then trace the cutouts onto all the pieces and just make sure you write the chore in the traced shape.
Lastly, I hung my wheels, and daily chores, and rules/prizes somewhere my kids will see it every day. I chose to stick them on the creepy little cabinet I have at the top of my stairs. It's kind of gross. When we first moved in this cabinet made me almost vomit. We keep cans in it now.
And now my kids better start being the lions, because I'm ready for the chores to be devoured already.
