She dropped her coat in the middle of the living room floor and threw a smirk in her brother’s direction. He glanced at the coat and then back at her as his face grew beet red. “You will pick that up right now,” he demanded. She flung her hair as she swung around to leave the room. “No.” she bantered back at him. “The living room is not my zone.”
All at once I had two huge problems. Kids who were mean to each other AND a chore system that wasn’t quite working the way I had planned. Ever been there?
This chore thing was supposed to instill character into their hearts and help them feel the responsibility of being part of a family. I don’t remember reading about this kind of sibling rivalry in the rule book. I have to admit, this is about the point when it’s almost easier to give up. I mean, they still require reminders. They purposely sabotage each other. AND, even when they do the job, it’s often lousy.
I think it’s time for a chore intervention. Don’t ya think?
Last fall I shared with you my simple chore chart. It’s something that took years of parenting and practice to get just the way I wanted it. And if I’m being honest, the above scenario isn’t all that frequent in our home. Most of the time, our chore system works pretty well.
But I have found that lately I’ve been struggling with the question of how to get kids to do their chores well. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone and create a fun challenge that would change the game.
Chore Challenge for Kids
The idea is simple. Using my original chore chart, children complete their chores in zones. Once they have their zone finished for the day, the challenge begins. We can play one of two ways: mom’s pick or peer judge. Both are pretty effective.
In mom’s pick, I use the score cards to pick the zone that has been done the best that day. In my house, that person gets a bonus $.25 in their allowance for the week, but you could keep score for a period of time and reward with other things.
I really like this idea because it teaches my kids to be able to handle the rejection of someone else getting picked, with a good attitude. It also teaches them that excellence is the standard I desire the most. A “good” job is a good thing, but I want them to understand the difference. I’ve found that children really need us to help them grasp this.
In peer judge, they each trade zones and check off the score card for their sibling’s zone. I find that this one can be brutal. They are way harder on each other than I am! Just like in mom’s pick, there is a winner chosen from the highest score and the 25 cent bonus is awarded.
The surprising result of this way was that my kids began to work together more to help their siblings attain the goal of a perfect zone. Remember the coat in the floor? I found that kind of thing happened less often because they suddenly wanted to see their siblings succeed at the chore challenge.
Wanna play? Download your free Chore Challenge cards today! They fully editable to add the tasks that work for your family!
GET YOUR FREE PRINTABLES:
I have made a fully editable version of the chore chart, plus the chore challenge. I pray that these free printables bless your family and help you to bless others this year.
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Thank you for being transparent about your “imperfect” children. Sometimes it’s easy for a reader to forget that your systems and children don’t run perfectly all the time. And that compounds into guilt for this mama! Neat chore intervention you’ve set up. I look forward to trying it out this week! Thanks for all you do and share in addition to being in the mommy/homeschool trenches!
No guilt allowed! 🙂 That’s my motto. Blessings to you!
I would love to be able to use your chore chart and chore challenge cards but fill them in with items specific to my family. Am I missing something? Is this already doable?
I don’t presently have it set up to be editable. I’m looking into the possibility. Hang tight on that!
Love this! I can’t see using your cards as is because some of the chores don’t apply to us (no laundry room) and my kids are pretty young…so they’d have to be a bit more basic. I would love to customize them. Do you have a printable one that could be edited?
I don’t have one presently, but I will look into that option. It requires a special software that I don’t actually own. 🙂
This is a great post and has some great ideas! I love reading your blog! Thank you for being honest and helping us other imperfect moms out. 🙂
Thank you for your sweet words!
This was just the inspiration I needed to create a simple plan for our family! I added one zone, so there is one for each of us. Thanks for sharing.
I love this and we have a chore system that works “most” of the time but I have 6 kids and my oldest (nine year old boy) doesn’t care to assist any of younger ones in attaining a perfect zone. I have tried to get him interested in helping them and it’s not happening. He just wants the bonus for himself. Our bonus is getting to pick what we have for Sunday dinner, pick out our friday night movie or a dollar store treat. I don’t know why I have such a hard time with my oldest being greedy but I am open to suggestions??
I would probably take a good hard look at where this attitude is coming from. It is rather natural for children to be selfish, but we as parents often nurture it, too. Media, friends, even school teachers have a huge impact on the “give-me” perspective that most kids today are plagued with. One possible option for him would be to sit him down and tell him that he is now too old to participate in the prize and that you now expect him to take on the responsibility of helping others. When he does that, I would reward him in a different way.
Thank you for sharing this with us. We also have zones for cleaning; inspired by the FlyLady system. So far they seem to be working, but not exactly how I hoped. There isn’t enough motivation to do their best. Even though they get paid at the end of the week for completed work. I love the challenge idea. I’m hoping to try this soon and see if it improves our efforts.
Thanks again!
This is a great idea. Almost makes me wish I had more than 1 kid.
I would love to receive your free printable chore charts! Thank you!!
Thank you for sharing this with us the kids are going to love it !
Hi there! Love this idea however, how would you suggest using it essentially with just 1 child? (I have an 8 yr. old girl and 3 yr. old boy…I think it would be a bit much for the toddler…and not really fair to rank his cleaning against an 8 yr. olds esp. when Mommy helps him with most things he cleans). TIA. 🙂
Maybe you could have a contest with your child and see who wins?
I think you are pretty great and really appreciate the resources you have shared. Way to go and thanks for blessing me and my family!
You’re welcome!
Wondering when your chore time is. We have 6 kiddos ages 2-13 and I have them do the morning, afternoon, and evening chores (the bulk in the afternoon)… Do you add these to your morning and evening chores? Just wondering if the zone thing will work for us… i would LOVE to simplify our chore system…seems VERY complex right now for us :-/
Morning chores are personal (make bed, brush teeth, etc). Afternoon chores for us are typically the zone they are in charge of. Evening chores revolve around dinner and preparing for the next day. It’s more of a family effort.
great ideas. but I have 1 kid. have to give this some thought. how to work for 1
Maybe mom, dad,and child could battle each other? 🙂
Please email me the chore zone templates both filled out and blank ones too. We have e 5 blessings to sort out home blessing chores to. Thanks!
Hi there. Just click on the info above and sign up. We will email you from there!
How would I implement a chore chart in general for an 8 year old only child threat does not care to help out? As for the challenge, would it be helpful to maybe have mom or dad (hes tougher than i am) checking the zone? Thanks!
One way to implement may be to start by writing a list of chores that you know your child is capable of doing and deciding how many you think is reasonable for them. After explaining to your child their job as part of the family is to be responsible for some of the chores that need to be done, let your child select which chores from your list they would like to claim as their own.
For the challenge, perhaps you can start with mom checking the zone but as they improve, pass the job to dad occasionally for an even greater challenge.
Thank you so much for these resources! I just found your blog today and this is ALL such a blessing! I’ve dedicated the summer to chore training in hopes it makes the school year easier. This chore challenge is exactly what I needed. Quick question – is there any way to edit the Zone section? We don’t do Zones, but rather have assigned chores on Assigned Days. Would love to edit that if possible. Thanks so much again!
Hi Kelly,
So glad this could be of help to you! If you select “open with” and “adobe” when opening the document you can edit the chore chart to however best fits your needs.
Please email help@notconsumed if would like any further assistance with that 🙂
Suzanne@notconsumed