FAMILY/ HOME/ Homemaking/ Kids/Family/ Parenting/ Simplifying

Simple Chore Chart-Power Of 3

{whoops, spelled vacuum wrong on one, but got it right on the other:)}

It’s spring break for my girls, so my posts this week will be a bit shorter than usual.  Despite a very busy week, I am determined to have a blast with my girls this week, which means less computer time for me!
I’m excited to share this simple chore system we have been using, thanks to Liz’s idea of the Power of 3. (you can read about it at her site, here.)



Power Of 3
 Hoosier Mama Liz, over at 
Hoosier Homemade, wrote a great post and linked it to my “Anti-Procrastination Tuesdays” link party.  Her post really stood out to me, and caused me to start thinking about how I can incorporate her idea into our family. I love how simple it is!  She calls it the “Power Of 3”  Here is more from Liz:

I simply give each of the boys (18,16 & 12) and my husband 3 things each day to do. Simple…huh? Not quite sure why I didn’t think of it before.

I typed up a form that has each of their names and 3 lines, I use a different sheet for each day. And if a chore on their list doesn’t get done (gasp) it gets added to the next day, if they have a chore listed more than…you guessed it…3 days, they are grounded for…you guessed it…3 days!

I have taken her idea of 3’s and made a simple post-it note chart. It has been working beautifully! (I will be hanging a white board to replace this chart in the near future, there are many reasons for wanting a white board, but in this case it will replace post-it notes, one less thing to buy!)

My girls have really responded to the chart.  No one has been grounded yet:) My approach is not as relaxed as Liz’s approach, because I skip this part of her plan–“if it doesn’t get done in 3 days, it gets added to the next day.”  I want my girls to get used to the the idea that we all contribute daily as a family.  It is non-negotiable. They need to have responsibilities everyday as it teaches them to be hard workers, and it communicates to them that we are a team and work together as a family.  If my girls were grown like her kids, I would probably feel different.

It has been super easy for them, they like knowing they won’t have more than 3 chores a day (except for Saturdays), and they are surprised at how quickly it gets done.  There has been very little complaining, which quite frankly, has surprised me.  They seem to like the number 3 and the simplicity of our new rule– “3 chores a day, if not accomplished = 3 days of grounding.”  The “3 days of grounding” part widened their little eyes, but they took me seriously when I laid out the rules. I can’t believe how easy it has been, I love it!

{if you are wondering, “dr” means “dining room.” Oh, and the one that says “pick up mom’s room” is because they made a mess in there, not because I make them clean MY mess:)}

As you can see from the above picture, Saturdays are an exception to the rule.  We have always done chores on Saturday mornings, so they are used to a list and doing a bit more on the weekend.  It really only takes them 30 minutes or so each Saturday.

I will continue the idea of 3’s, even after our white board is hung.

I am also working on what I call “Daily Routine Charts” (brush teeth, get backpack ready, eat breakfast would all be part of their morning routine.)  We have done this before and it worked beautifully.  Why we stopped?  Hmmm, I have no idea, but it is time to start again.  By having these charts, mommy is not constantly nagging reminding them to get these little things done.  I’ll share those when I have the design finished.

So what works for you?  Do you have a chart system?  How many chores do your kids do?





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  • Momma to 3
    June 4, 2014 at 11:23 pm

    Great post! I am on board with the whole idea, and have been doing the “daily routine” for quite a while in our family. I was hoping to get your chart, but it seems to be removed. 🙁 Thank you!

  • Kaysi
    May 17, 2010 at 6:18 pm

    Great idea!!

  • Heather
    May 17, 2010 at 3:14 pm

    Great idea, and I love the simplicity of it too! Thanks for sharing.

  • Lisa
    April 28, 2010 at 9:11 pm

    Great post! I love this idea and am going to start using it for chores at our house. Looking forward to seeing your Daily Routine Charts! We need those, too. 🙂

  • the momma
    April 14, 2010 at 1:22 pm

    This is a great idea, and I think I may incorporate it in to our re-organization that’s currently happening (spring and all, you know) My 9,8 & 5 yr olds could definitely handle this.
    I love your blog, and I’m off to read more of what you’ve written!!
    PS–LOVE the kitchen in the header. Yours, I’m assuming? Beautiful!

  • Melissa McMommy
    April 13, 2010 at 5:54 pm

    Just stopping by. Love your blog and love this chore idea! (I don’t have kids yet, but I’m a teacher and I love the structure of this.)

    Melissa

  • Marianne
    March 30, 2010 at 12:20 am

    I can’t wait to see your daily rutine chart.

  • KDL
    March 28, 2010 at 5:01 am

    Chores is something we’ve struggled with for our oldest. She is on the autism spectrum and doing chores around the house seems to be very regulating for her, but after a couple of weeks of doing a particular chore, no matter how excited she was at the beginning she gets bored with it. We noticed that at school she loves doing all of the classroom jobs, and has been enjoying them ALL year, so mommy got smart and looked at the teacher’s chart. They have a list of jobs and the kids rotate through which job they have. So I came up with 7 chores that I thought everyone in our family could help with. Our oldest is 6 and we have 2 year old twins. Obviously the twins can’t do things independently, but they can help! So each day each person has just one job, and my main job is to encourage them to do it, help them if needed, and praise them when they do. So far it is working well. Planning a blog post if it continues to succeed.

  • Brooke
    March 25, 2010 at 9:28 pm

    I love this simple idea! I’m a new reader of your blog and I am loving it all. 🙂 Thank you!

    At our house we use some job charts that I created in Photoshop and personalized for my kids–I had them sit down with me and decide what the chores would be, then we took pictures of things representing their jobs and I made the poster. It’s fun because since the kids are involved in the decision making process they seem to “own” their jobs and tend to do them better rather than me just dictating what they have to do, know what I mean? 🙂

    Anyway, if you or anyone else is interested, I have the free download of the basic job chart template on my blog if you want to customize your own in Photoshop. 🙂
    http://www.brookie-wookie.blogspot.com/search/label/job%20charts

  • se7en
    March 24, 2010 at 8:43 pm

    Don’t you just love post it notes!!! The answer to a million and one household dilemmas!!! Great 30 minute post!!!

  • Tasha
    March 23, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    I love how simple it is. Not a lot of work to even come up with and very functional. I really need to get my act together in making a chore chart. Thanks for sharing it!

  • Liz@HoosierHomemade
    March 23, 2010 at 12:42 am

    You are doing a great job! Congrats!
    Yes, my boys are older, they are all teenagers, unfortunately I have learned the hard way. It would have been much easier to teach them when they were younger.
    I’m so happy that I can help younger moms teach their children now, so that they don’t have to be aggrevated like I am now.
    ~Liz

  • Megan
    March 23, 2010 at 12:14 am

    Love it!

    Q-Tip is only 17 months but I am totally diggin this for the future!!

    Thanks for sharing!!

    http://reddirtandcrazy.blogspot.com/

  • Julie
    March 23, 2010 at 12:10 am

    I absolutely love this idea. I’m so bad at keeping up on chore charts but this one seems do-able. I’m implementing it tomorrow! yay!! And I won’t procastinate. wink wink!

  • Amy @ New Nostalgia
    March 23, 2010 at 3:45 am

    Thanks Everyone!
    Sarah-In our home, ‘being grounded’ means loosing a privilege for a certain period of time.
    What that privilege is, depends on what matters to that individual girl.
    My oldest loves tv, computer, ipod and video games. She is our techy girl. I know if I ground her from these things it is going to matter to her.
    My youngest loves keep up with everyone and be “big” like her sisters, so to go to bed early is the end of the world in her little brain (because she misses out and doesn’t get to stay up like the “big” girls.) We use going to bed early with her b/c it counts. Make sense?

    Sometimes, instead of being grounded, we give them a consequence, and try to have that consequence relate to the offense. Example, for the chore chart, a good consequence for not doing their chores would be to have a couple extra chores for 3 days. Or maybe even do one chore for each sister for 3 days…oooh, that is a good one!!:)

  • For the Love of Naps - Sarah
    March 23, 2010 at 1:50 am

    So my boys are too young to be grounded…but they are probably young enough to just learn to do the three tasks without knowing there is a choice. Curious what grounded means for your family?

    Love this idea. I think it seems manageable and cold work even for my 2 and 5 year old! Love it!

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