Chore Time!

Those words are uttered a couple or three times a day at our house!

This afternoon I'm in David's office, waiting for my children to finish up fiddle lessons, so I've been working on a new chore list. My goal is to teach my children to run a house by the time they graduate from high school, so I rotate the kids through the chore list, teaching them new jobs along until they know how to do every thing in the house.

Sometimes people ask me what chores are appropriate for each age level, so I thought I would give you our chore list.

Note that these are not all the things my children help with. Everyone keeps their room neat, changes and makes their beds, does some ironing (except Abby), helps with housecleaning and getting meals on the table, and does whatever needs to be done at the moment! I have children who are excellent helpers with good attitudes. They're the greatest!

Katie is 23 and works full time, so her job is to cut the grass in the summer and facilitate supper during the week if she's home. (Lunch is our main meal, supper is "every man for himself", except for Thomas and Abby, who need help sometimes)

Rachel is 19 and teaches fiddle part time. She does a myriad of things around the house, including washing breakfast dishes during the week, cleaning the bathrooms in the morning, supervising the cleanup of the girls' room at night, and dividing up the girls' clean laundry at night.

Emily is 16. Her chores include fixing breakfast once a week, learning to cook lunch once a week, washing lunch dishes on the weekend, and washing supper dishes during the week.

Anna is 14. She must cook breakfast twice a week, supervise the girls' room in the morning, wash lunch dishes 3x a week, learn to cook lunch once a week, and do laundry on Saturday.

Carrie is 12. She cooks breakfast 3x a week, washes breakfast dishes on the weekend, dries dishes with Abby 4x a week and does laundry during the week, including hanging clothes on the line on pretty days.

Thomas is 10. He's totally in charge of trash and does a wonderful job without being reminded. dries dishes 3x a week, but I'll admit it's not his favorite job. He's learning to cook breakfast on Monday morning. And he'll be learning to dust mop the back part of the house every morning.

Abby is 6. She's still in training to clean her room, morning and night, dry dishes with Carrie 4x a week, and help fold and put away laundry every day with me. We're adding the jobs of helping me clean up the bathrooms after night baths and cleaning up the lunch table 3x a week.