Good morning everyone. I hope you had a good night’s sleep.
Yes, you there. You in the back – did you have a question?
Heidi, what in the world does doing chores have to do with homeschooling?
Good question. The answer, I suppose, has to do with your views on homeschooling and parenting, as well as how much beauty you find in vacuum lines. For our family, chores are an important part of the educational process. Learning to stick with a task, even when especially when it feels tedious, and complete it with excellency is a very important skill to develop. And one that will certainly come in handy in school.
Plus, I love vacuum lines.
But Heidi, haven’t you covered all this before?
Yup. But even great chore systems become stagnant after awhile. Change can be very motivating. And here we are, in a brand new year, the holidays behind us. We’re ready for some change.
When it comes to chores, our little clipboard system has been pretty successful, but sadly, it is no longer all that motivating. In fact, the clipboards haven’t even left their hooks since before the great flood. It’s time to shake things up a bit.
The people behind Goal for It, an online chore chart, couldn’t have had better timing when they asked me to check them out and offer my opinion.
Well folks, check out the chore chart I did. (When I reread that sentence, my inner voice sounded a lot like Yoda, but strange like that, I am).
As for my opinion? I like it.
Here’s why.
1. The site is simple to use. I can easily pick what type of chart I want (for myself, a young child, or a tween/teen). Then I simply choose goals/chores from their menu or create my own.
2. It goes beyond the typical. Here is a screenshot I took while creating Newt’s chart.
On the left is a menu with items to add. I have it open to the section listing usual household chores. But if you look above that, you’ll see drop down menus for Health (Example: Eat More Veggies), Traits (Be Patient), and Fulfillment (Nurture Faith). I love that there is motivation to set goals beyond Pick Up Your Socks.
Sidenote: I’ve decided to use this in conjunction with our clipboards. I added Manage To Do List to Newt’s chart. Her clipboard will hold that information.
2 1/2. (I think I like this one.) I have the option to assign points to each item on the chart and create rewards that the points can be redeemed for. When the items are complete, Newt can check them off on her chart and Goal For It will place her points in a bank until she is ready to cash in.
I’m not crazy about external rewards for chores. However, I have kept the points low and the rewards simple, so we’ll see how it goes. If I find that I don’t like it, I can remove all points and awards and not use that part of the program.
3. You don’t have to do it all online. I have printed copies of our charts (of course, I made one for myself). Every few days, when convenient, we’ll log on and update the online version. If I had to remember to to do it every day, I’d get distracted by facebook or pinterest and it just wouldn’t happen.
4. Newt seems to like the system too. She added plenty of input as to the things she would like on her chart (like Study and Think Positive. I was happy to see that she was all fired up to try it out, starting Monday (because she is a starting Monday kind of gal). Sadly, Monday was the day that she was hit with that yucky stomach bug. (I guess she’ll have to be a starting Wednesday kind of gal this week.)
If her excitement over her chart is any indication, I think it will be a success.
Until it’s not anymore, and we have to change things up again…
Let’s hope that’s not for a good, long time.
And also that I get to see some vacuum lines around here more often.
This post has been sponsored by Goal For It. All text and opinions are my own.
is one of our favorite games. Solving the puzzles is great for encouraging strategic thinking, planning ahead and thinking visually, but who cares about all that? We like it becasue it’s super fun.
for children aged 6 – 8.
