FREE Chore Chart for little & big kids

Our family sat down last night for Family Home Evening and had a lesson (this lesson - which I wrote for my YEAR OF FHE blog) about Working Hard. We each took a turn saying how we felt about hard work.  Ella: It's boring.  Eva: It makes me tired.  Daddy: Sometimes I don't like it very much.  Mommy: I hate it. I would much rather do something fun.  But we discussed why it's important. Why God wants us to work hard. How it can make us feel when we're finished. And how we can make it more fun as a family.  We finished by having the girls decorate chore charts and we talked about and agreed on simple chores for them to do each day.  Ella's chore chart is shown below (she is 7 years old). I only had 4 chores for her to start with, but she wanted to fill all six slots...who was I to argue?  It seemed to go well. I am hoping it will stick...for me as well as for them! As you know, I am ultra-lazy with a dash of slothfulness. I hate hard work, but I believe it's important so I feel an additional push to lead by example.

1. I will make my bed.

2. Help set the table

3. I will tidy the shelf

4. Dirty clothes in the hamper

5. Put my pj's on my pillow (which should have been no.2)

6. Put my clothes on the hanger (outfit for the next day)

After the kids went to bed I thoroughly cleaned our downstairs den, weeding broken toys, donating toys we no longer use and organizing my work space. it was a BIG job, but I feel good about the progress.   Here's a handy list I found online of chores for each age range of children. It really helped us structure the chores for our kids.  I never knew what could actually be expected of them. This is a great help.  And here is a link where you can download the chore charts I made...one for big kids and one for small children.  I really think children getting to decorate and make a chart their own gives them more ownership and inspires them to do more.

Enjoy!