Most of us try to enlist our children with doing chores around the house. We feel it is something that will develop a strong work ethic for them, as well as teach them basic principles of how to take care of themselves and be a decent, clean and orderly human being. Am I right?

I have read that children who help out at home or have regular chores may have some of the following characteristics:

*can be better behaved when they are away from home
*can have more self-confidence
*may be able to be more self-disciplined when they live away from home
*could take initiative when it comes to taking care of themselves when they move away from home
*may be better at multi-tasking
*learn how important it is to keep themselves and their environment clean and orderly (and how that can affect their behavior)

Granted these may not apply to all children, but I do think it is true to a degree. I have seen it with my own four children.

We all will also agree on the fact that is sometimes if more like babysitting or pulling teeth when it comes to getting our kids to helping around the house and getting their chores done! We started something in our house a few months ago that seems to be working. Granted, I don’t follow this religiously as life does happen…either we forget or we are out and about so much there is no time….but when we do use it, it does work!

I made a wheel out of card stock (I just traced them using different items in my kitchen for the circle) and attached them with a large brad. Then I used a Sharpie to write on the assignments. We agreed to do these things each evening before bed. Each child is assigned a “zone” to work on (the first two colors) then the inside color (green) are a few random quick jobs to do. My kids LOVE the idea of being a sheriff! I had a hard time coming up with another job, then I thought of having one of them be the person who helps those who need it, checks up on them, and makes sure the job is done. So far it has worked beautifully! The kids aren’t perfect of course, but for the most part they are really good about helping out, and they know what is expected of them.

What I like about this system most is that:

*it is easy, quick, and everyone understands
*simple to put together with supplies almost everyone has on hand
*kids can be involved creating it
*you can rotate the wheel to mix it up to any combo you like

If you are needing to change your current chore system or want to start one, this idea is a great one! Tweak it to how it will work for you. It has sure worked for us.