THE CHOOSE-A-CHORE CHART

A friend of mine, Mary, adapted a common chore chart system for her family, which includes four children ages 3 through 13.

First Mary created a chore chart out of a large piece of poster board. She made a large table of index-card-size spaces. She listed her family members’ names down the far left column with blank spaces in the columns to the right. In each blank space, Mary placed a piece of Velcro.

Then Mary created a series of Velcro-backed index cards, each labeled with a different chore. The children designed symbols for each chore so that the non-readers could keep up.

On Sunday nights, the whole family gathers around the kitchen table to select their chores for the week. They take turns, choosing one chore at a time and then sticking their chore cards on the chore chart by their name.

The children have to choose as many chores as half their age. The 3-year-old gets one card; the 13-year-old gets six cards.

There are three types of chores: standing chores, weekly chores, and heavy-duty chores.

1 Standing chores are personal chores that you must do each week. Period. For example, making your bed and keeping your room tidy are personal chores. And in Mary’s home if it’s your pet, you feed it. You don’t get a card for this; you just do it.

2 Weekly chores include cleaning the bathroom, washing the kitchen floor, emptying the dishwasher, setting and clearing the table, and helping prepare dinner.

3 Heavy-duty chores are harder jobs such as cleaning the garage, cleaning window tracks, raking leaves, and washing the car. The kids earn extra money for these chores. They can volunteer to do them in addition to their other chores to earn extra cash.

Each kid gets 25 cents per week per year of age as an allowance. The 3-year-old gets 75 cents; the 13-year-old gets $4.25. If they do not do their chores or if Mary or the nanny have to nag, they only get a percentage of their allowances—or none at all.

Mary has been using this system for five years. And she never nags.