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.

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.

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 DoDiy HSHPSkip To My LouThe House In The RosesSumo's Sweet StuffDIY Show Off Project ParadeC.R.A.F.T.Making The World CuterKeeping It SimpleMad In CraftsIt's So Very Cheri Homemaker On A Dime Sew Many Ways Tuesdays:Homebody HollyNot Just A HousewifeHouse of GraceAll Things RelatedTip JunkieHope StudiosTopsy TurvyCreative ItchCraft EditionGiggles Glitz and Glam Wednesdays:My Backyard Eden
Blue Cricket Design Domestically SpeakingTea Rose HomeSomeday CraftsSew Much AdoPrimitive And ProperSeven Thirty ThreeType ALil LunaWe Are That FamilyElements And InteriorsHandy Man Crafty Woman
Thursdays:Shabby Chic CottageSomewhat SimpleYesterday On TuesdayHouse Of HepworthsBeyond The Picket FenceBeneath My HeartFireflies And JellybeansTales From BloggeritavilleThe Brambleberry CottageCommon Ground Rhinestone BeagleIt's A Keeper Fridays:Shanty 2 ChicMiss Mustard SeedShabby NestRemodelaholicRomantic HomeFinding FabulousVintage RevivalsJust A GirlTidy MomFingerprints On The FridgeChic On A ShoestringA Little Knick KnackThe Girl Creative Saturdays:Funky Junk InteriorsPerfectly ImperfectTatertots And JelloCrafy EnvyBe Different Act NormalAlong For The RideA Vision To Remember Kims Kandy Kreations