responsibility sticks :: a visual daily duties system

So my child?? He is excellent at daily chores. He stays on task. He doesn't complain. He remembers exactly what he is responsible for taking care of. He moves swiftly from one thing to another, without distraction. In other words, he's a daily duties rock star. Not. 

And it's not just on him. It's on me, too. Yep, me! I'm the parent. My job is to guide and train and oversee. And I fail sometimes. Especially when I'm without a routine or a system.

So a few weeks ago I gathered up supplies from my craft stash and set out to create a little system for daily duties. I wanted it to be something visual and simple that would be easy for my boy to follow.

Here's what a I pulled:

jumbo craft sticks craft paint paint brush sharpie pen mason jar

I quickly painted half of each stick - 7 of them.

While they were drying, I chatted with my little about his daily responsibilities. He thought about it and shared with me what some of them are - going to school, sight words and reading, picking up his room. I added in a few and wrote them in sharpie pen on the blank side of the sticks.

My boy spends a big chunk of the day at school, which in itself is a full-time 6-year-old job so we try to keep his tasks at home fair and age appropriate.

Just to give you an idea, here are the jobs we have for my Kindergartner. Some we do together. Some he does solo ::

sight words - We work on these together for just a few minutes every day after school Bible Story - While this certainly isn't a chore, it's a very important part of the day so we included it! We read a Bible story together and talk about it. We run through the Bible passage he is memorizing that week. My boy also loves loves LOVES the Bible App on our iPad. make bed read - He reads aloud for about 10 minutes each day math - There are oodles of fantastic math game apps that he plays on for about 10-15 minutes every afternoon around the world - Aka pick up your stuff so mom doesn't have to! He quickly goes from room to room before bedtime grabbing stray toys or clothes or papers and puts them away. pick up room

Ok, now what??

The sticks go into the jar chore side up and when my boy has completed what is on each stick, he flips it over. Before he hits the sack at night, the goal is for all of the blue ends to be up. If that happens, he knows he is done with his tasks for the day. Hip hip! He also then has earned a small but fair allowance for faithfully completing his jobs. Pay day comes at the end of the week.

Our goals with this system are to establish consistency and encourage joy in daily tasks. Also independence. Time management. Lessons with money and giving. The whole shebang.

 What about you, friends? Do you have a task system with your kids? What is it? Does it work well? 

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. ~ Colossians 3:17