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Managers
of Their Homes
Also know as MOTH. Please visit Titus2
for more information.
Managers
of Their Chores
Review by Tess -- mom of 4 girls (June
2006; SL Preschool Moving On)
Also know as MOTH. Please visit Titus2
for more information.
I was able to take Steve and Teri
Maxwell's workshop session on Managers of Their Chores as well as purchase the
book. The subtitle is A Practical Guide to Children's Chores.
The book has 20 chapters plus a preface, Appendix and Additional Resources.
I think this book is more than
just a "how to set up a successful chore system". It is a great
foundation to *why* chores are necessary and how our attitudes as parents (both
mom and dad) can influence both negatively and positively the children.
The second chapter is called
Biblical Basis for Chores. It was very eye opening for me. It was a
bible study on work or chores in the Bible. This chapter helped me to
correct my view of work and to begin to change the view of work that I had been
teaching to my children. They discuss work in scripture, Jesus' Life
Example, Jesus' Specific Example and Jesus' Expectations. Here is a quote
from the end of the chapter (page 19)
"We must resist the
unbiblical example of those around us who live life for the entertainment and
recreation. Biblically, we are called to a life of service. Training
children for this adult role of servant-hood begins in the home with
chores."
Chapters 3 and 4 discuss
benefits of Chores and chapters 5 and 6 discuss Dad and Mom's attitudes.
Some of the issues discussed in the Mom's Attitude chapter include Consistency,
Balanced Standards, Working with Children, When Mom is A Perfectionist.
Chapter 7 is called The Children. this chapter is more about having our
children's hearts. Some section titles are Walking with the Spirit,
Motivation, Communicating Standards and it finishes with Helping our Children
Toward the Goal Quote from page 52 "The way we approach laying this
foundation will affect how our children approach their chore
responsibilities"
The rest of the book (Chapters
8- 20 ) are the more practical aspects and take you step by step through the
process of figuring out what chores your family needs to do, how often, who
should do them and setting up the chore packs.
Chapter 10 is Developing a
Master Chore List and this chapter was worth nearly the whole price of the book
(for me anyway LOL). Sections include Where we Start, Questions for
the Master Chore List, Chore Library (the Chore Library is located on the Master
Chore List in the appendix. For this form alone I would have purchased the
book. It was developed by pooling all the test families chore lists.
You just go down the list and check off the chores that you need to do in your
home and add any at the blank bottom that are unique to your family. Then
you have your Master Chore List DONE and have a nice complete list of all the
tasks necessary to keep your home clean to your standard. Chapter 10 talks
about The Basics for the Master Chore Lists, Real Chores for the Master Chore
List and then gives you a nice definition of Task-Based or Global Chores.
Younger children will need task bask chores. Such as put plates on table,
put silverware on table etc where as older children can have a global chore of
"set table" This chapter also has sections on Priority and
Frequency.
Oh Chapter 17 is called Chores
and Preschoolers. They have a whole chapter devoted to doing chores with
preschoolers.
In the appendix the have a
section called Recommended Steps for Putting Your Chore System Together.
This was very helpful for me. It has three "tracks" that you
choose from depending on if you have never used a chore system or already have
one in place but want to switch or the more involved step of putting the FULL
Chorepack System.
I am implementing Track 1 but
working on Track 3 so that I can begin to add additional chore packs.
If you are familiar with MOTH,
the layout, style and step by step instruction in MOTC is very much the same.
I found the information in the beginning chapters to be very valuable and even
if I didn't use chore packs it was profitable for me to read the chapters on the
benefits of chores, the attitudes of parents and especially the chapter on
Biblical Basis.
I think the Master Chore Library
would be a benefit to *any* chore system.
Just like the MOTH book that had
actual copies of real family schedules, MOTC has real family, Family Chore
Assignment Worksheets so you can see how other families have done things.
Oh! I forgot about the ChorePak
Checklist. This makes it easy for mom to see what cores are in which core
packs and makes checking and inspecting chores easier.
I took my time reading the book. I wanted to have the FULL thing
ready by June 1st but life got in the way. On Memorial Day we implemented
Morning Chore Packs. This was supposed to be our routine for ages
but it was so hard to get the girls to do what they were supposed to do.
Now we still have attitude. We still have character issues *but* the
chore packs are *wonderful* Even little Mantha loves her chore pack
and she is getting her morning exercises in more consistently because I made a
chore card for them. We've had to adjust the order of chores and I need to
add a reminder card for my oldest and I need to change one of Abby's cards
but over all it is successful and we are ready to add another chore pack (except
I am not ready as I don't have them done LOL maybe today!)
Oldest dd has these chores in
her chore pack:
-
Make Bed
-
Brush/Fix Hair
-
Tidy Room
-
Make Breakfast
"healthy twin" has
these:
My "special girl" has:
-
Get Dresses
-
Exercises
-
Brush Hair
-
Make Bed
-
Tidy Room
-
Set Table for breakfast
My youngest has:
-
Get Dressed/Put Pj's
away
-
Brush/Fix Hair, Tidy Room
-
Take Laundry to Laundry Room
-
Scoop Cat boxes.
We eat breakfast when these
chores are finished and then we don't have chore packs yet but we have been
working on cleaning up breakfast and doing some type of rotating weekly chore
(IE Monday vacuum, Tuesday, mop) we haven't quite got that down yet and I know
it will go so much easier when I have the ChorePack for it.
With the Chore Packs I don't
have to think about what each child is supposed to do. And because they
wear these clipped to their clothes I can see at a glance what they are supposed
to be doing. The biggest "problem" was Saturday when
my youngest decided she didn't want to do Chore Pack. I reminded her that
most of her chores were things she was going to have to do anyway like get
dressed and brush her hair so she might as well get used to the chore pack and
do the two "real chores" of Laundry and Cat Boxes. I also
reminded her that we would NOT do Morning Chore Packs on Sunday.
Today will be rough as it is
8:16 now and they are still in bed. I turned their alarm off as I knew
that they had gone to bed late.
Kelly asked for tips: Don't
try to implement all the chore packs at one time. Get one set of chore
packs to be routine (we chose morning) and then add the other chore packs (if
you need them, we do LOL). Do NOT take a day off from the chore pack
(other than a planned day off, which for us is Sunday) otherwise you might
"forget".
DO follow what Teri says about
having a special place to keep chore packs. I have to teach Abby not
to take it off and leave it somewhere. She never turned in her completed
chore pack yesterday and I thought she had LOST it. I found it on her
dresser but that was the 3rd or 4 th time.
Hope this helps!
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