13 June 2011

The Game Plan

After the first week of summer break it was crystal clear what I needed to do.  Kids fighting, whining, melting down.  House looks like a bomb when off.  Mom is angry.  This is NOT how I want to spend the next 7 weeks of my life.

So I started searching for ideas and schedules and charts oh my.  And yesterday we sat down the kids and started brain storming ideas.  I’ve taken a few ideas from several different sources and made a plan that works for us.

So first and foremost I built our day to day schedule.  I have it running only Mon-Friday because I have always implemented free weekends.  We go do things and have fun as a family, not clean.  So I’ll show you the schedule then I’ll break it down for you.

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Down the left side column I labeled the days, Monday through Friday.   Each day has it’s own theme.  So Mondays are ‘make a memory Mondays’.  Meaning we will go to the pool, park, zoo etc… and make some memories during the free time that day.  Tuesdays are ‘Time to read Tuesdays’ where we’ll go to the library or the book store.

Next I have a column for each child.  In hindsight I didn’t need this as the same schedule applies for each kid in the house now.  But if you have school aged kids and babies that still nap or something this would be useful. 

Then I planned out the day in hour long blocks. I will show you below.

  • 8am-9am- Morning Chores.  Wake up, get dressed, tidy room, make bed, eat breakfast and brush teeth. (If these are not completed by 9am there will be a consequence, I’ll get into that in a moment.)
  • 9am-10am- Outside play
  • 10am-11am- Indoor creative play
  • 11am-12pm- Weekly Chores (I’ll get into that in a moment as well.
  • 12pm-1pm- Lunch.  This consists of making it, eating it and cleaning it up.
  • 1pm-3pm- Free Time.  This is the time we use for the pool, park, tv, video games etc…
  • 3pm-4pm- Quiet time.  One hour they will go to their rooms and rest, read, have down time.
  • 4pm-5pm- Round up and Dinner.  This is when we clean up for the day and prep dinner.

Anything beyond this point in the day is our normal routine of dinner clean up, baths and bedtime. I didn’t need to spell it out because they are already familiar with it.

Okay so the Morning Chores are consistent each day.  The weekly chores change each day.  So I have used this job list from The household planner.  It has a Daily, Weekly and Occasional chores on it.  So I can break down exactly what they are to be doing.

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Here are the weekly chores:

Monday- Kitchen.  Sweep, mop, clean counters, clean table. 

Tuesday- Living areas.  Dust, Vacuum, Clean up playroom.

Wednesday- Bedrooms.  Dust, Vacuum, Sort Laundry.

Thursday- Bathrooms.  Counters, Mirror, Toilets, Bathtubs and Floors.

Friday- Misc.  Laundry Room, Laundry, Windows etc…

 

If there is more chores than children I will assign one to each child and I will take the left overs.  I have an hour a day blocked out for the weekly chores.  Between me and three kids it should not take longer than an hour to complete any one of these days tasks.

We also came up with two jars and craft sticks as well. I got this idea from Holly over at Homebody.  We have a complaint jar and a boredom jar.  The children helped me brainstorm ideas for the sticks.  We have way more boredom sticks than complaint sticks lol.

The boredom jar serves as a tool for the kids when they can’t think of anything to do.  All the ideas written on craft sticks placed in the jar.  The complaint jar is for when someone complains about the daily tasks or is out of line.  I will do another post more on these sticks tomorrow.  I’ll show you how we made our jars and the ideas for the complaint and boredom sticks we came up with.

Sorry this post is more wordy than pictures but I hope some of you find it helpful in regaining control of the house this summer!

 

~Sommer

I'm sharing at these parties...You can find me linking up at these great blogs parties... Here is where I'll be this week...

Mondays:
Sew Can Do
Diy HSHP
Skip To My Lou
The House In The Roses
Sumo's Sweet Stuff
DIY Show Off Project Parade
C.R.A.F.T.
Making The World Cuter
Keeping It Simple
Mad In Crafts
It's So Very Cheri
 Homemaker On A Dime
 Sew Many Ways
 
Tuesdays:
Homebody Holly
Not Just A Housewife
House of Grace
All Things Related
Tip Junkie
Hope Studios
Topsy Turvy
Creative Itch
Craft Edition
Giggles Glitz and Glam
 
Wednesdays:
My Backyard Eden
Blue Cricket Design
 Domestically Speaking
Tea Rose Home
Someday Crafts
Sew Much Ado
Primitive And Proper
Seven Thirty Three
Type A
Lil Luna
We Are That Family
Elements And Interiors
Handy Man Crafty Woman

Thursdays:
Shabby Chic Cottage
Somewhat Simple
Yesterday On Tuesday
House Of Hepworths
Beyond The Picket Fence
Beneath My Heart
Fireflies And Jellybeans
Tales From Bloggeritaville
The Brambleberry Cottage
Common Ground
 Rhinestone Beagle
It's A Keeper
 
Fridays:
Shanty 2 Chic
Miss Mustard Seed
Shabby Nest
Remodelaholic
Romantic Home
Finding Fabulous
Vintage Revivals
Just A Girl
Tidy Mom
Fingerprints On The Fridge
Chic On A Shoestring
A Little Knick Knack
The Girl Creative
 
Saturdays:
Funky Junk Interiors
Perfectly Imperfect
Tatertots And Jello
Crafy Envy
Be Different Act Normal
Along For The Ride
A Vision To Remember
 Kims Kandy Kreations
 

4 comments:

Becky@OrganizingMadeFun said...

You are MY kind of girl! Get that schedule going! It helps so much, doesn't it? We have a few summer activities - swimming lessons, golf lessons - thrown into ours. But, it helps a lot to get everything figured out!

Becky B.
www.organizingmadefun.com
Organizing Made Fun

BluBabesCreate said...

Could so use this!

Holly said...

It's looks great, Sommer! I'm glad I was able to inspire you ;)
We're on day two of our system, and I'm still fine tuning it.

SJ @ Homemaker On A Dime said...

Thanks for sharing this at the CBPH, girlie! You solved my issue for this summer :) Now I have a schedule for my girls to follow - LOL!

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