Summer Chores
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Disclaimer: I’m not perfect at this, and you shouldn’t expect yourself to be either. Do your best. Some days it happens, and some days it doesn’t. The simpler the better.
Summer mommin is a whole different beast! The kids are home all day making messes, fighting, needing things to do.. so that means summer systems need to be different than school months-at least in my house. From my POV they all should be responsible for more things around the house during this time. My goal isn’t a perfectly kept house, but my goal is to nurture them into becoming capable, competent, and hardworking men. And good husbands!! I want my future daughter-in-laws to have a stable life, and hard working husbands who carry their load around the house.
Research confirms the best way to raise competent kids is to give them chores. To accomplish that I can think of a few different categories they need to be trained in: household chores (including gardening and cooking), finances, physical, education, spiritual, social, and entrepreneurship (despite what they do for a career in the future, this will help them).
Chore IDEAS for each of those categories category:
HOUSEHOLD CHORES:
Rotate who is responsible for the GARDEN on any given day: weeding, harvesting, watering, planting etc
Rotate MEAL DAY: planning, cooking, serving
Rotate CLEANING ZONES: Divide your home into zones and keep track on a chore chart. Each kid is responsible for that area one day or one week at a time (your choice). Example: Kitchen, living, mudroom and hallway, upstairs bathrooms, homework or computer room, basement living room etc. For whatever designated time period- that zone is one specific kid’s responsibility. They are to vacuum/sweep, tidy, wash walls once a week, countertops… whatever is required to keep that room relatively tidy. Don’t expect perfection.
Pro tip: have specific hours (i.e. 10-12am) that you do chores and have them all do their specific zone at the same time (i.e. cleaning zone time 10:30-10:50 am). It’s much easier to manage. Side note: In our house dishes aren’t part of the cleaning zone responsibility. Cleaning the countertops, floors, table, appliances etc takes enough time. Dishes is a separate chore to go around.
Other ideas: tidy bedroom and make bed, yardwork, laundry for kids ages 8+
Get some popsicle sticks and make chore sticks. Pick 1-2 other household chore(s) per day outside of their zone. Paper works too, but the sticks last longer.
In our house if it’s your meal day then you don’t have to do the “chore sticks”
FINANCES:
Try giving your kid(s )an allowance. It’s a great way to teach saving, budgeting, and self control. Teach your child to save 20%, kids that are ages 10+ pay a 10% donation, and the rest is play money (or whatever you decide). This can help kids appreciate what it costs to go out with friends! Movies aren’t cheap!
They get their allowance on weekly after their chores have been done. They must have completed the majority of their responsibilities to get their full allowance. Teach them how to split up their money that day. You can use a bank account or use this piggy bank to keep track of their savings. You can set a private code, so they can’t sneak savings money to spend: They have to ask permission to spend that money. It may be a good idea to decide what to save that money for, and then they can get the money once they’ve reached their savings goal.
PHYSICAL:
My kids all play sports, but kids don’t have to play sports to be active. You can require them to practice their sport for X amount of time if they don’t have team practice that day, go on a (family) bike ride, go for a walk or run, play outside for X amount of time, pull weeds (obsessed with this weeder) in the yard, play at the park or swing set/playground in your yard, shoot some hoops, mow the lawn… just a few ideas. Outdoor games like this one and this obstacle course are fun, and keep them moving!
Hygene! Boys STANK! My boys have to shower, brush teeth, and get ready everyday.
EDUCATION:
Reading! All of my kids get to read X amount of time on scriptures/bible, and X amount of time on another book/chapter book. The time requirement varies by age.
The ‘I Survived’ and ‘Percy Jackson’ series are some of their favorites
I tailor other education assignments to what they need to work on specifically. I have a kid that is terrible at spelling, so he’s required to work on spelling. Another needs to work on his penmanship, so he does that. If your kiddo needs help in math- focus on that. You can do science experiments, puzzles, gardening, explore nature/hike or anything else that’s interesting. We also love CRUNCH LABS by Mark Rober (his YouTube videos are awesome too).
SPIRITUAL:
Like I said under the ‘education’ section, my kids are to read scriptures everyday.
We do family lessons and scripture study often, but this isn’t listed on their chore chart.
Personal prayers morning and night
SOCIAL:
This isn’t on their chore chart, because my kids are all pretty social, but if needed I’ll encourage them to play with friends. Their sports teams help keep them social too.
If this is something your kiddo struggles with you could add it to their chore chart: play with friends 2-3x per week, do a summer class to make friends, set up a play date with a neighbor or go to a play group, read books about friendship, go to the park and encourage your child to ask someone to play a game (floor is lava, tag, swings i.e.). Relationships are a two-way street, so help them build the confidence to try.
It might be fun to make friendship jewelry with a friend. My boys used to do that a lot. It’s calming, sensory, and low-pressure play (not sure that’s a technical term, but you know what I mean).
ENTREPREUERSHIP:
Reasons for this: teach them to work hard in the workforce; their competitive sports are expensive so they need to help pay for them; teach them about investing, sales, hard work, general business knowledge. If they are going to provide for a family one day, they need to be prepared with some skills/capabilities, work ethic, confidence, and the mindset to do that. No matter what field they go into. Men need to feel strong and competent. Confidence comes from trusting yourself. You gain that trust in yourself by work and action.
Some of the things they do is sell ($4 each) homemade faux-leather keychains that I’ve made, sell baked goods, yard work for neighbors. They also sell collectable sports cards that they’ve invested in or traded (we go to cards shows and look online). That’s an investing business model my kids are learning and studying. They love sports, so it’s something they’re interested in too! But there are lots of ideas online, so google it if you want help coming up with ideas for your kids to make money.
These are some things that I think are important for my family, but you know your kids and family best. Take some/all of my ideas if you like, but ultimately do what is best for your family. I’ve created 2 free printable chore charts 1. example of one of my kid’s charts 2. one that you can print and customize for your child. Happy summer cleaning!
