Because I Give A Stick

I’m not really sure how I survived last summer.  But I know this summer I have had to make some changes and institute some structure.  I just showed you how I made our summer activity and chore schedules.  We’ve instituted some ground rules and along with rules come consequences.  So we have created the almighty complaint jar.  And we have filled it with these wonderful little chore sticks.  I found this awesome idea from Homebody Holly who found it originally from Family Fun.

The rules this summer are:

• Morning chores done by 9am
• No fighting
• No complaining
• No TV or other screen time before noon.  This includes video games.

If a child breaks one of these rules they have to pull a chore stick.  If two or three children are fighting they will jointly pull a chore stick and work on that chore until they can be civilized once again.

Here’s how it works.  You clean out any old little soup can…  This is just a glimpse of my stash.  I use these puppies for all kinds of things.

Next you and the children brainstorm chores that only need done on occasion and aren’t very pleasant.  Here are the sticks… And you just write a chore onto each one.

 

Some of the chores we’ve chosen are:

• Clean out the truck
• Wipe baseboards
• Wipe window sills
• Polish banister
• Clean out the fridge
• Pull weeds
• Sweep front porch and walkway
• Clean cabinet doors
• Clean light switch plates

You get the idea… Here is what the little darlings look like once you’ve glued some jute all around them and added cute little chalkboard tags.  You’d never know there was punishment in there!

As you can see we have a sister jar as well.  The boredom jar!  We took the sticks and came up with all kinds of creative ideas for when you hear that age old “I’m bored”.  Here are some ideas for the boredom jar we came up with.  These are all activities they can do without the help of MOM.

• Build a fort
• Make a play
• Make a puppet show
• Play with clay
• Go on a treasure hunt
• Make a treasure map
• Play Uno
• Build a puzzle
• Play hide and seek
• Play with water guns
• Blow bubbles
• Ride Bikes
• Build a bug habitat
• Wash bikes
• Make a lemonade stand
• Gather up old toys to donate
• Decorate paper plates
• Make up a dance routine

The list goes on.  As you can see it was much easier coming up with these than the chores lol.  Today was the start of this new technique and thus far we’ve pulled two chore sticks and no boredom sticks.  I’m happy to say that the first day on the schedule ran smooth as butta!

~Sommer

 

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