chore jar!

I've discovered since being home that it's more important than ever to me that the kids help with keeping house. Anyone that knows me, or knows our house well, knows that I'm not remotely crazy about housework. Even the neighbor kids have commented on occasion (or several occasions. Manners? Anyone?). I'd so much rather be doing something else than cleaning. And it's not like it used to be - pre kids - when I could just choose an afternoon and get it all done in one fell swoop. No, it's 10 minutes here, 5 minutes there unless I call a Family Clean. Which everybody loves.

During the week though the kids and I have gotten into an ok rhythm. Guthrie's an automatic in helping out. She's got no choice and generally she's fairly happy to help.  Now that Laithe is a little bit older he's starting to help out more - with varying degrees of success, but often I'll catch Guthrie doing his chores for him. I'm pretty sure that will end sooner rather than later. Cleaning is actually a built in part of our school time. It was at Guthrie's old school too. A large portion of Montessori curriculum is care of the environment and I strongly believe it sets kids up well for adulthood.

The regular chores they do almost daily, or sometimes multiple times daily are helping me unload the dishwasher and putting away their clean laundry. Their also responsible for cleaning up their room. That one doesn't usually go as well, although yesterday Guthrie put her headphones on and some music and did an awesome job. 

With the dishes, Guthrie puts away all the silverware that we keep in a basket. She's pretty fussy about it. The forks and spoons get lined up just so and she will not let anyone help her.   
Which, really I didn't want to help her anyways so . . .

Laithe is in charge of putting away the kids' dishes. This used to be Guthrie's job, but she got taller. And able to wield knives. Like I said above, varying degrees of success with Laithe. I have the drawer lined with shelf paper and had drawn shapes for cues as to where everything goes. Sometimes it's immaculate and sometimes:

As long as he can shut the door we're both happy.

As you saw above this is a multi-post subject - blogger is being a turkey. So, until next week when I reveal the best part of chore time according to the kids!