A Summer Chore List Helps Teach the Family Routine

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Teaching the whole family through similar routines helps keep the home running smoothly. Try a summer chore list to tame the chaos.

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Hellooo Summer! Long days full of sunshine, and fun, and family togetherness. Or is it more like long days of kids home, begging for electronics, with toys and crafts strewn from one end of the house to the other while Mom spends all her time cooking one meal and snack after another.

I say it every summer – this is the summer I am going to stay on top of it, and keep our family and home organized.

This summer, I really mean it! After watching my sister-in-law take the reigns year after year, and seeing how well her kids respond to it – there was no way I couldn’t put together our own Summer Chore List without some hope it would work.

See, here’s what I’ve learned over the years – routine is one of many keys to a happy healthy family. It’s honestly why I love when the kids go to school, because we have a good routine with school. But when summer hits, we tend to say goodbye to routine and hello to chaos.

It’s time to stop the chaos, and just change up the routine. There are a lot of things a routine can teach us as a family, but here’s just a few I see in my home.

Responsibility

When you stick to a routine as a family, it teaches kids that they are responsible for certain things in a family. Things like making their bed, their personal hygiene, and helping keep the home clean.

Trust

I have to trust that the kids are doing their chore list, and being honest about it. The kids have to trust me to follow through with rewards and consequences. Without trust, families fall apart. 

Example

Having a summer chore list is a great time to teach your kids by example. I have given myself the same list to accomplish every day just as them. This means the list is no longer something I just talk about, but they see me doing it. They say actions speak louder than words, and I truly believe that when it comes to teaching our kids. If we don’t do it, neither will they.

Priorities

Kids do not know how to prioritize. They don’t. Sometimes they might get it right, but generally they will want to do the fun things first, and procrastinate the work. By setting up a routine you are teaching them how to prioritize. This skill will be essential throughout their entire life.

If you’d like a customized copy of this printable, just shoot me an email or comment below.

So how does this summer chore list work? Well, I got the idea from my sister in law. Each child will get a printed off sheet that then gets laminated. Attach the sheet to a clipboard, and hang on the wall, or place in an area that is easily noticeable. We don’t want to forget about these after all. Each morning the kids grab their sheet, and as they go through the routine they check off each item.

You may be wondering about a few of the items on my kids list. Morning routine for example is what I call out every day when they get up, even during the school year. My kids know that it means 4 things – Make bed, brush hair, brush teeth, say prayer. Nothing else happens until these 4 items are done.

4 workbook pages

The 4 workbook pages came about, because every year my children bring home half done work books that they don’t want to get rid of. They also don’t crack them open ever again. So now we do a partial “summer school”, and keep their minds fresh for the next year by completing a few pages out of the workbooks each day.

For the spiritual study time, this looks different for each of my kids. I do ask that they read from The Book of Mormon every day. However, my 12 year old is working on a program called Personal Progress while the other girls are working on a program called Faith in God. There are different faith building activities they do to earn awards, and this is a time they can set aside to work on those. For my 7 year old, I have challenged him to read The Book of Mormon before his next birthday when he is old enough to be baptized.So together he and I read a little of that each day.

Once the chore list is done, they are allowed 1 hour of screen time. If they get on screens before their chores are through, they lose screen time the rest of that day and the next. This consequence teaches them to be responsible for their lists and their time.

My kids think 1 hour is not enough time, but I think it’s plenty. After all, I plan on taking the kids on adventures, finding new parks, going on hikes, playing new board games, and getting them together with friends. We can’t do that if we stare at a screen with all the leftover time in each day.

How do summers look at your house?

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