Life Skills

Life Skills, a fancy title for teaching your children how to adult. In our home it starts with chores. I have tried so many strategies but none have worked better than the Job Box. In the 80's a book came out titled, "Sidetracked Home Executives" and my mother whole-heartedly jumped onto that bandwagon. I have to say at the time it wasn't a favorite for us kids but it worked. Recently, that particular job box was passed on to me. After some revamping to fit our family, we are now using that same system.

The S.H.E. system has been wonderful. It removes me, the nagging mom, out of the equation. The kids know exactly what they need to do without my having to tell them daily. It took some time to get everything set up, then some training in how to use the system and how to complete certain chores but that little bit of work has saved a ton of aggravation since.

Basically, the system uses 3x5 index cards filed in such a way to maintain household chores. The box itself is divided into three sections; Monday - Friday dividers, days of the month 1-31 dividers, and then monthly dividers.

To determine the chores you want to include you walk through each room of your house with pen and pad and write down EVERYTHING you want done in those individual rooms. Once that's done, look over your list and write next to the job how often you would like to do the things listed; daily, every other day, weekly, every other week, monthly, seasonally, yearly. If the job takes 10 min or less to complete it's a "mini" job, write that next to the frequency.

Once you have your completed list it's time to transfer all of that onto index cards. You will need 3 colors. Mine are yellow for daily and every other day., green for weekly and every other week, orange for monthly and beyond.

The kids are responsible for any chore relating to their living space, bedrooms, bathroom, and game room. They also have assigned chores throughout the house; Eli unloads the dishwasher in the morning, Olivia loads in the evening, Eli takes the trash out and feeds the dog, while Olivia sweeps the kitchen floor and feeds the fish, so on and so forth. All daily chores are grouped by person assigned to and placed in front of the particular day card it is. When they get up they go to the box and grab their set.

Weekly mini cards can go anywhere under Mon - Fri card but remain assigned to that day. Jobs that take longer than 10 minutes are assigned to our designated heavy cleaning days. These are typically bi-monthly or monthly jobs and they are filed under days of the month. Seasonal or annual jobs are filed under monthly tabs.

Once all jobs are completed the kids set their cards aside for me to file in front of the next day.  This way I can also do a quick walk through to make sure everything was completed the way they were taught.

The first few times completing a newly added chore is the hardest, especially, if it's a chore that hasn't been done in a while. Once it's done the chore gets easier and easier to do because its maintained. I made cards for everything and I'm still thinking of more to add as I see certain areas that need attention. I even made a weekly chore card for cleaning out the car and a monthly one for washing it.

To keep things flowing well without nagging we have rules and consequences. Morning chores are completed before school. (These are labeled on the cards.) Before any television, tablet, or PlayStation time ALL chores must be completed. If they get on devices before chores are done then they lose those privileges. It really is a huge motivator for our children.

Now there are some of my monthly/seasonal chores that I will occasionally ask the kids if they would like to do and earn some money. My oldest earned $10 by scrubbing the siding on the back porch! I don't pay them to complete their own chores. We don't have a scheduled allowance here, just opportunities to earn some cash now and again.

The system works great for us and I love how the house is coming together!