Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

The New Year has got JD and I talking about goals for ourselves and for the family. One of the goals we feel strongly about is bringing up the kids to be capable so that when they leave home it's an easier transition. We want them to already be proficient at cooking and cleaning among other things.

Last year we introduced a chore wheel for the daily jobs such as setting the table and washing the dishes. They've been fine with helping out and have already got much better/faster at doing it. Plus there are now days when I do no washing up at all, which has to be a good thing :D

So, now we've decided to introduce the kids to more chores. Things that we do weekly around the house. We've assigned all the jobs a value of points based on how much effort they take or how much no-one wants to do them. Cleaning the toilet is 4 points for instance and Dusting is just 1. We each have an amount of points we have to do a week based on age. JD printed off a handy sheet for us to keep track of it:

In addition to this the kids are each going to make tea once a week for us all. They have to decide what they're going to cook and then prepare it (with help if needed).

Erin cooked Bang-bang chicken for tea tonight.

Leigh prepped some vegetables ready for making beef stew and dumplings in the slow cooker tomorrow.

So far they both seem really positive about the changes. When we talked to them about what we were thinking of changing they both seemed keen. JD and I had both said we'd expected them to resist the idea of more chores. But it was the opposite and they both enjoyed picking out which chores to do.

Hopefully, they feel just as keen when it's time to do the chores. I'm interested to see if they want to keep going with the cooking too. Fingers crossed :)