calendar spelling: The Everyday Family Chore System (The Molly Crew)

The Molly Crew is a part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew. It is for products other then homeschooling. I am always trying to get my house in order so I am thrilled to be a part of it.

Product

The Molly Crew?s first review is The Everyday Family Chore System from Everyday Homemaking. The Print copy is $19.99 and the PDF version is $17.99. A sample of The Everyday Family Chore System is available. Vicki Bentley homeschooled 8 children and fostered 50! ?Her book ?The Everyday Family Chore Sytem? has three main sections. The first section talks about why you want to teach your children these household skills. The second section goes into the details of the System.?It gives a list of jobs children can do at different ages.??It also gives several different ideas on how to execute her ideas. The third section has the printable cards with step by step instructions for many jobs.

Experience

I have read so many books on parenting, chores, organization, routines, etc. I am always looking for something better, something I can tweak, something I can add to make it work better. I loved the ideas in this book. I especially loved chore cards that describe every step needed to complete the job. What a great idea!?I opted to use the Chore boards we already have. They are wooden pegboards with my childrens names on them. All required jobs are placed on the first peg each morning and they are flipped to the second peg as they are finished. These work great for simple jobs that my children are already used to doing such as get dressed, brush teeth, make bed, etc. They do not work very well for the family chores. They do not provide any step by step instructions. This is where Vicki?s system really came into play for me. In the past each of my kids were responsible for a room in the home. It was very difficult for them to remember the steps of that room and they would often come to me and ask what else they needed to do. I decided to use some of Vicki?s ideas and change it up. I chose four chores for each of my children to do daily and took picture of each of the steps. I made a ?laminated ?storyboard? with the steps typed under the photos and stuck them on the walls where they would see them while doing that chore. I then used a chore card for that job and added it to their peg. For instance when my daughter got to the dishwasher card on her pegboard. She could go to dishwasher and their posted on the wall was a laminated paper?with step by step photos of what she needs to do. I am working taking pictures of inside the kitchen cabinets and I am going to place them on the inside doors so that when she is unloading the dishwasher she will not just throw the stuff where ever it fits.

Pros

I found the list of appropriate duties for each age level very helpful. I also thought the step by step cards were very helpful as a guide while I made my own. I liked that I could read the entire book in one sitting. So often books like this take days to read and what you really want to do is just jump to the part about implementing the program. I didn?t feel that way with this one. ?I was excited to get started but I also wanted to read it all. I also liked that she gives several different ideas for implementing her program and doesn?t try and tell you that you have to do it a certain way.

Cons

I don?t really have anything other then it would be nice if the pdf version had a type it in feature so that you could modify the cards.

Verdict

Overall I enjoyed the book. I found it useful. It motivated me to revamp my current system and get back on track. I will not go so far as to say that my children enjoy housework but I will say that I think they are much more comfortable doing their chores as they know exactly what is expected of them. I think the book is worth the price.