Summertime is supposed to be more relaxed than the school year – but sometimes it can be too relaxed. Here is how we are using a summer chore chart to keep our family organized!
School’s out for the summer and my kids are so excited to do nothing! Or so they think… Now that Annabelle is 8 and Ailey is almost 6, it’s important they learn about responsibility and accountability. We want our daughters to have ownership over their day and how much fun they have in it. These skills are so crucial for their teenage/college years!
With the hopes of teaching them some of life’s most important lessons, I’ve created a summer chore chart. We are calling it a Summer Checklist though – just like our school year checklist. We used a checklist as a guide for stress free mornings before/after school.
Summer Chore Checklist for Morning and Evening
Annabelle and Ailey don’t really enjoy cleaning their room or putting their dishes in the sink after a meal. I have to remind them almost every day to do both tasks … until now when there is an incentive involved. A lot of what we are asking the children to do around the house are good mannered behaviors! The earlier kids learn to help with daily duties, the more likely they will continue to do the same as they get older.
It is not easy finding a kids chore system that works for everyone! I have based our chore chart and reward system off the way Brandon and I run our household. IF the children want to do certain activities THEN they will need to earn it by completing tasks around the house. This simple chore checklist will help our kids become working part of our household. It will also teach them the value of their work and how to earn what they want.
Free Printable Summer Chore Checklist for Kids
Rewards for Completing Summer Chores
Rewards are pretty important when it comes to children and chores around the house. If you want your kids to step away from an activity to complete a task of YOUR choosing, then you may want to offer an incentive for the behavior. The more times a child completes a checklist, the more routine the behavior becomes!
The incentive for completing the morning checklist is 30-60 minutes of screen time OR playing in the playroom. The incentive for completing the evening checklist is 30 minutes of screen time before bed OR screen time at all the next day. My children are very motivated by screen time.
Examples of Rewards: TV time, iPad time, neighborhood pool, neighborhood park, Ice Cream Truck money, Popsicles, homemade ice cream sundaes, movie theater, s’mores by the fire pit. See more ideas here.
Currently, the girls can earn EXTRA screen time, money for the ice cream truck, their favorite meal for dinner, and bonus time to stay up before bed. We are working on a longer list of rewards too!
Summer Chore Ideas
Once we have adjusted to our new summer morning and evening checklists, I will be adding a few chores to their daily routine. Downtime can be dangerous with energetic sisters! We want our daughters to help with cleaning the living areas of our home, such as the kitchen and family room. Vacuuming, unloading/loading the dishwasher, dusting and cleaning windows are all age appropriate chores.
Check out this post for more age appropriate chores
Magnetic Chore Chart OR Free Printable Chore Chart
Want to print off any of the chore charts above? Check out this FREE Printable Summer Chore Checklist Here! Print off any of the checklists I’ve created and either laminate or place in a dry erase folder.
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