I promised I’d share my progress on the 12 week goals … so here we go!

Goal #1: purge my college text books and notebooks by August 22nd.
Progress: mission accomplished!

Goal #2: implement a workable chore system for my kids by August 21st, and consistently follow through. The system will be easy to follow, even for my daughter who isn’t reading yet. I will consistently follow through on making sure it gets done and reward them appropriately. Also, need to decide on an allowance system.

Progress: mission almost accomplished! Yep … I’d say I’m almost there. We’ve defined what the kids will be responsible for and we’ve set up a checklist system and created clip boards for each of the kids to use. We’ve also decided basically on payment. Chores are top of mind for me on a daily basis — so I’d say I’m pretty close to consistently following through. We need to add some things to the system. There are a few chores they don’t fully understand yet and we have to work through this. But all in all … we’re well underway. And I must say … much farther along than I would have been were it not for “going public” here. But … like most ongoing things … my chores system is a work-in-progress. So all in all I’d say I’m happy with our progress.

So what’s the system all about … well, they each have daily chores which include things like making their beds (which come to think of it they didn’t do three weeks ago — yea, a total victory!), clearing the dishes, setting the table, getting themselves dressed, helping to make lunch, picking up their things each day before bed, doing homework and so on. Basic things. We took away the dog responsibilities after one too many incident of the puppy eating the older dog’s food. The consequences were just too stinky. So it was a very beneficial tweak in the system.

We also have weekly chores. I think I’m going to update their chore charts so they can do one extra chore per day — things like sweeping the floor, sorting laundry, putting laundry away, and so on — instead of leaving all of this for the weekends.

One part of the system was to make it easy to understand for my non-reader (the little girl on the yellow bus from yesterday). So I created this:

Put away laundry

It has a picture of each chore along with the words. It’s hot off the press — so I’ll let you know how it goes.

All in all, it was a successful 12 weeks. I know these two things would have fallen off my radar screen were it not for all of you — so I thank you. Thank you for all of you who joined in, commented or just read along silently. Because of you, I have a bit less clutter in the form of college text books and a few less chores on *my* daily to-do list. And … my daughter is learning to spell the days-of-the-week and various chores because of this little challenge. Yep. I’d call it a win. 🙂

Update: My husband took the photos I used in the little book. And I laminated the photos using wallet size lamination pouches.