So in reviewing the everyday Family chore system by Vicki Bentley, I have a few comments right off the bat. The biggest one is that this is extremely helpful for everyone but there are things in it that you may not agree with. For example, if you are someone of Christian faith, there are things that you may not use-- but to be honest, that is minimal in comparison to what you will get out of this. It is really that good.
In the beginning, she kind of goes through and she is sharing a little bit about herself and her family which led to her wanting to create this product. And having to leave for a few days, her daughter stepped up and helped around the house and it showed her that and having to leave for many days her daughter stuffed up and hotel around the house and it showed her that she did a good job and she wants to share how she did that.
In part 1 about laying the foundation, I completely agree about laying down foundations for the future. I, however, don't necessarily agree with some of the ideas that she puts forth in passing. She mentions about "submitting to Authority without Rebellion" and "do everything without complaining". In general, these aren't bad ideas but they're just very general statements that can have consequences too. The thing is is that I think it comes off negatively even if they don't necessarily think that the writer means it that way. You should always think about the community and be responsible to everybody and not just yourself. That is much rather a value I would want to instill into my kids.
When reading the life skills list I feel like some of the things that are expecting of younger kids is a little bit ambitious at first- but then realised that she is merely exposing the kids to the idea of co-op learning of the skill and then includes the age by which they should learn. For example expecting a six-year-old to mop the floor by themselves is not completely accurate in my opinion because they have to know how to do it correctly and a lot of kids don't know how to do that even at eight or nine years old let alone at 6. SO, I was SUPER happy to learn that she gives the ages that they start learning this at and by what age they should be able to complete this by. For mopping the floor, you get them helping at 6, but then they can do by the time they are teens. Some of these I didn't learn until I was a teenager, for example, how to wash my clothes in the washer and dryer. And she expects kids to learn this at 9 years old which isn't unreasonable. It's just not common. But I think it is great to start teaching them at this age! I love teaching them independence.
Believe it or not, I (and you will too) really like this list because it challenges me to be able to have my kids be a more active part of family and it releases stress from me. And if you are a mum, you know this feeling.
I love some of the ideas that she has in her about having a kid get used to the one chore and how to do it correctly for an entire month, then switching chores. With incentive, we kind of try to get creative to introduce chores by having a chart similar to what she has but to have the chores and then to have the kids names in a separate but parrallel area. This is because not all chores are daily. They got to do some chores during the day and then they got to mark them off according to what they did. What this meant was that they weren't doing the same chore everyday.
We have even implemented a weekly prize for a child who does both their chores and their school. Which believe it or not can be really tough to accomplish.
The job from a box is genius.
The idea is that you write down on index cards how to clean each room and you put it in a box-like a little card file and then you have all the instructions for cleaning every room or clean outside. Which is complete genius because then you can tell the kids now you know you can't say you didn't know how to clean it.
I think the biggest thing that I took away from some of these is having routine is really important.
There's some really good tools in here. One of my favorite has to be the checklist for each cleaning list for, say, laundry or bathroom. It's such a good way to be able to help with literally copying and having the kids be able to have their own checklist.
Also there's even a step by step on how to do your own laundry in here that you can literally sit down with your child and be able to go over with them.
Teaching life skills to children is something that in a busy world is much more important to attend to and often lacking.
I absolutely love the fact that basically you could take these pages out of the book and build your own chore list and make a buddy board without even having to think twice. A buddy board it's basically a Girl Scout term that is basically a chores list that every body participates in. It's pretty much the same thing.
For the job from a box alone I would for sure put this together and suggest it to any parent to try out as it has helped me and my family.
It is much easier for a child to be able to do a tour if they understand exactly what they need to do and I completely agree that these are life building skills that they need to learn how to do for one day when they are on their own. Just think of their future college roommate…. 😉
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