2 Chore Strategies: "One Good Hour" and "Guess the Box"

I am a really mean mom. I believe in chores. If my kids have a day off of school, I think some of that free time should be spent working hard. (Idle hands are the devil's tool right?) So Saturdays, school holidays, and most summer days involve some type of extra chores. I've already talked about the Wheel of Excitement. Now here are two more strategies I use at my house: 

 

Guess the Box!

Do you ever end up with just a big box of junk that you don't know what it is? Maybe it's just me, but my house if filled with junk boxes.  We get home from a trip, and end up with a huge pile of junk that seems to have no home.  We clean out under the beds and create a huge pile of junk. We pack up to move, and in the end each room is left with a tiny pile of leftover junk. We clean out the car and discover a huge pile of junk.  Of course the junk piles would be best dealt with immediately, but sometimes you just don't have the time or energy for it. So we put it in a box (or drawer or closet) and forget about it.

My bathroom "junk drawer." Where does all that stuff come from?

Tackling a big pile of junk can be daunting.  The Guess the Box method helps to simplify the task and keeps it from being overwhelming for me and my kids.  We start with a pile (or box or closet or drawer) of junk. Everyone looks at the pile and guesses how many things they think are in the pile (this also helps build their math skills!). We write our guesses on a piece of paper. 

 

Each person then takes five things at a time out of the pile and puts them away. When everyone has put away their five items, we come back to the pile, pick five more things, and put them away. Taking five things at a time is so simple even tiny kids can do it.  They can look into the pile and find 5 pieces of clothing that belong in the laundry or five toys that belong in their room.  The five things don't have to be the same, but it is simpler (especially for younger kids) to put away like items.

 



Everything I pulled out from under my boys' bunk beds.

Each time we make a trip, we put a tally mark on our paper. When the box is finally empty, we count the number of tally marks and times it by 5 times the number of people working to get a total count of how many items were in the box. Whoever guessed the closest wins a quarter! Yup, just a quarter. Winning a quarter is so much more exciting than just having a quarter. I have found that keeping the monetary prize low helps to keep the kids from cheating when they are emptying the box (yes, they actually try to sneak and put away extra items in an effort to keep the tally closer to their own guess).

Guess the Box is one of my favorite chore activities because it keeps the kids' brains and bodies active, and we can get a big job done very quickly. My kids like it because they get to decide what to put away. They look in the pile and choose what items they want to deal with. And best of all, it's an activity where kids of all ages can participate equally, which isn't easy to do in a big family.

 

One Good Hour (OGH)

My kids love to complain about chores.  "We've been working all day!" "You never let us play!" Bla bla bla bla.  So to help combat the whining, I coined the term "One Good Hour."  OGH is just my way of telling the kids they are going to have to put in an honest effort for one hour, and then they are free to go play. It helps to put a concrete boundary on chores so that they can see they don't actually last forever. During our OGH the kids know if they work hard, they will get the rest of the day off. If they goof around during that hour, I will extend chore time indefinitely. 

For example, if the yard needs weeded, I will announce that we are doing OGH in the yard. This means the kids and I will spend an hour in the yard getting as much work done as we can. If during that hour the kids are sitting around, wandering off, arguing, complaining, or any other form of slacking, the time gets extended, and we will continue to work until the job gets done, hoever long that takes.  Conversely, if the kids work really hard and get done sooner than expected, they are free to go early.

I love OGH because it sets a clear expectation for my kids. They love it (okay, just kidding, they hate it, but they at least tolerate it) because it puts a time limit on their misery.



Marcia