Winning the chore war!

Here is my final entry for craft sticks for the week.  I am posting this in lieu of my Friday Favorites, as I simply ran out of time to post the last few days.

In a house with 6 family members, household chores are always a challenge to keep up with and are seemingly never done.  Laundry alone could be a full time job with two divas under the age of 3 - not to mention two mancubs who love to get dirty, plus mom and dad. 

We are all about each person doing their part to "help the family go", so each person is assigned chores as they are old enough to carry them out on their own.  Even our 2 year old knows the clean up song and helps put toys away in the playroom.

I wanted an easy way to organize and assign chores each day, so I went to the internet in search of ideas.  I found a great wooden chore block tutorial and enlisted my dad in helping me build one of my own.  I'm not afraid of power tools.  It's just that woodworking is his thing. :)

Here is what the body looked like before I painted it.

I painted the block white, but only used one coat of paint because I didn't want it to be blindingly white.  Is it weird that I like to paint with foam brushes?

 

While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I printed up a sign for the block with the word CHORES on it and a scripture reference.  I've started a new habit lately of putting a scripture reference to just about everything around the house, so the kids will see that by being faithful in the every day things, we are also being faithful and obedient to God.  The kids really seem to appreciate it and a few really awesome conversations have come about because of it.

 





If you read my Prayer pot post, you learned that I have an abundance of decorative clay pots.  Another one got put to good use for this project, too.

Once the paint was dry, I glued the sign onto the section of the block where the clay pot sits.

On each section to the left of the chores sign, I personalized it with the kids' names (not shown below).  For now, the youngest diva doesn't have any chores - although, she is really good at making messes for the rest of us to clean up!

 

Each day, I place each child's assigned chores in their block.  When they complete the chore, they move it back to the clay pot.  It works well and I love not having to constantly remind the kids what their chores are every day!

Enjoy your weekend!