Here's a bedtime one I did for Julia right before Ethan was born. We took pictures of her doing each part of her bedtime ritual - being the born actress that she is, she LOVED the creating of this chart too! It was nice when I had two very little boys to be able to send her off to do her bedtime chart and have her report to me in between. We put this chart on a ring and then used an elastic to have it stay on her bedroom door. This worked great... now we do bedtime all together without a chart!
My picture taking is not nearly as good as my chart-making skills (sorry)! This was for daily chores during Julia's obsession with Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red is a cutout from a colouring book and she just travels along through the forest (with the help of sticky tack) with each tree representing a day of the week and a job to do.
We've had this one for a while... and it's almost time for a fresh idea. Julia is Elastigirl and Tyler is Dash... and they litterally are their designated super heroes while they run around doing their jobs! Ethan is ready to help too and I think their jobs can get a little bit "harder" so I need to come up with a new idea. But this one has definately been a hit! I printed off a forest background and then pasted the chores on. The Incredibles are laminated for durability and also have sticky tack on the backs.
With school starting, Julia asked for her own morning chart to help her get ready for school. I observed her for a while and she really takes forever to get ready in the mornings. I decided her chart would need some time limits if we were to ever get out the door on time! She starts by getting up at 7:00 (there's an analog and digital clock there to make it a learning tool too!). Once she finishes the activities listed beside the clocks she can write her name with a dry erase marker in the square. Later I may have her write a "word of the day" to help her with her spelling. If all goes well and the chart holds true she will basically be "ready for school" by 8:15. At this time she and the boys can come to me and ask for a SPECIAL JOB... if and when they complete it they get to go to the craft table to do a SPECIAL ACTIVITY. I stole this idea off of somebody who homeschools blog, but I can't find it again to give it credit. If they don't finish the special job they can't exchange it for a special activity and have to go find something else to do all by themselves - this hasn't happened yet! The "special activity" is beads, stickers, card making, gluing anything... I have a whole slew of craft supplies and ideas, and if I set it out the night before it's easy to grab and get them going. This is the time when I get to go get ready all by myself without any child banging on the bathroom door, fingers wiggling beneath the crack or faces peeking out behind the shower curtain! (Thanks for the idea anonymous homeschooling Mom - so far it has worked great and I'm amazed it's taken me this long to figure out a "getting myself ready chart!") Starting Wednesday when my little girl grows up and starts kindergarten, we will be heading out the door at 8:45 to walk her up the street to school.
So here's what's worked for me. They've all taken more thought than work and are pretty simple to make. Feel free to copy... I'm always looking for and stealing ideas! What's worked for you? I need a new daily chore one for all three of my kiddos.
12 comments:
That's a great idea! We've used lists at our place, but the charts are so much more graphic and engaging. Thanks for sharing.
To Love, Honor and Dismay
I am so glad that I read this blog so that I can participate in the family and not get the "Don't you know what we have been doing for the past year" talk.
Can't wait to be home!
Holy chartmaking skills! Those are fabulous. I need to be sure my kids don't see them, or they'll realize that their chore charts are just way too uncool.
I'll try to make new ones that are somewhat closer to your fabulousness maybe ... in January?
They are amazing!
You are supermom. We're having an Enrichment activity on "How to create an organized schedule for your kids" next month- do you want to fly to NM and be our guest speaker?!?
You always give the greatest ideas.
Hope all is well!
Rachel
Renee, you are truly inspiring :) I'll call on you for help next month in designing my very first potty training chart....
You are all WAY too nice! My Mom had great charts growing up and I enjoy doing it! I'm NOT supermom by any means. I did want to note that the bees in the awful picture taking of the new school chart are our TV time. They're on velcro and each bee is a half hour of tv or movie. They can use them seperately or all together. We're just now getting to the point where they like to watch separate things --- how do you all monitor TV time/viewing?
I agree with everyone else that you've done a stellar job with charts. As you know, the chart thing is turning out to be a very useful tool in our house. As fart as TV monitoring goes, with Adam there are specific times of the day he can watch something. In the mornings after he's finished his morning chore chart. But he has to finish his chart in a timely manner or his time slot will slip away and he will lose the priviledge. Also, the afternoons if he had a successful quiet time. As in, he was actually quiet the whole time and stayed where he chose to have quiet time.
Hi I love reading your blog I have heard great things about you from Michelle and Cami. So what chores do you have a three year old do? I need to start doing something with my daughter up until now I haven't done a thing. I just don't know where to begin and I don't want to overwhelm her or me.
Debbi - HI! Any friend of Camie or Michelle is a friend of mine!
You can find tons of ideas online of what age-appropriate chores would be - just google "age-appropriate chores".
All of my 3 yr. olds favorite chores all have to do with water - which is usually another chore for me! He LOVES wiping down the table for me and uses a squirt bottle and sponge for that... he also enjoys cleaning windows, "washing" dishes, sweeping, helping make meals - ex. grating cheese, spreading PB on bread - doesn't like picking up so much, but enjoys dusting (since we blare our music to this) and setting the table and helping put dishes away. It's an experiment though. He still has days where his chore is really a chore... but I want my kids to learn that that's sometimes what chores are... and they'll learn how to do them right. (I know, I'm a mean Mom!) Also my kids get training on their jobs (basically they watch me do it) and my 3 yo will often say, "I forget Mom... I need more training!" Good luck!
Renee, I'm so impressed. You are inspiring. Your kids are totally learning work skills and organizational skills. I'll have to keep those charts in mind.
Renee--I stumbled across your blog from Camie's...GREAT charts!! Where'd you get the graphics for the chores? That's been my major stumbling block in getting my charts done. I'm such a feeble artist!! Also, how do you keep track of if everyone's done their chores? I've seen where people have had laminated cardstock chore cards in plastic sleeves that they flip from done/not done...but I haven't figured out how to make those durable yet.
As far as monitoring tv & computer time goes, we have kitchen timers that I keep with me. I've seen other people that have paper charts that they've posted somewhere...
Hello. You don't know me, and I don't know you. I was surfing the web to get ideas on how to make a bedtime routine chart and your blog came up. I absolutely LOVE your ideas! I'm so glad I found your blog!
I promise I'm not a freak. I have a blog to if you're curious.
www.funfamilyoffour.blogspot.com
Thanks for the ideas!
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