Keep Your Children Focused; Make a Chore Chart!

Are you tired of asking your children time after time to complete their chores? Giving them some kind of visual reminder is a lot more fun than nagging them and a great way for them to track their accomplishments - and be rewarded, right mom? Here's how to create a chore chart.

Sit down with your children and discuss which chores will be given to whom and on what days. Make sure you assign tasks based on your child's age and skill capabilities.

Younger children can make their bed and pick up toys while school age children can handle more elaborate things like taking care of pets or emptying the garbage. Be sure to let them know what your expectations are regarding their chores.

Decide how many chores you want them to do, then divide them up. While it is important for you children to learn responsibility, you do not want to burden them with a ton of chores - especially during the week when they have homework, sports events, dance class, or any other thing consuming their schedule.

To make your chores list any color poster board works well, but you can use a piece of paper, a dry erase board or just about anything else you can come up with. Be creative and make it fun for your kids to look at. You can even take it a step further by letting your children help decorate it themselves.

Make seven columns across the top - one for each day of the week. Then list your children's names down the left side - I would include mom and dad as well so the kids can "see" that you are working with them too. Since you've already decided who's doing what chore and when, add it your chore sheet.

Praise them for a job well done. It is hard to make everyone follow a chore chart. One way to help with this is by letting the kids mark off their own chores as they complete them. You can use fun stickers that they can select to place over their chore for the day once it's done.

Rewards can be anything you wish. Play to their desires - the child who completes all their chores for the week gets to stay up an hour longer on the weekend, or pick the restaurant for your weekly dinner out.

Just make sure that your child understands that just because you ask them to do something and they do it, they will not always get rewarded.