How We Do It: The Morning Routine {#31days}

Since I've written about the boys doing their morning jobs, it occurred to me that you might want to know what those are. There are a bunch of chore charts all over the place that you could use. And, for a while, we used a ton of different ones until we found what worked for us. We used the Melissa & Doug one, we used reward charts, stickers, etc. But the one that has worked the best for my boys was the Morning High Five! I guess it is the "high five!" factor that made it stick. I'm not sure. But, they help with keeping the house in order, so we we keep on keeping on!

Here's what the boys do every morning:

 

MORNING ROUTINE

Breakfast

Kitchen Clean Up

Brush Teeth

Get Dressed & Make Bed

Trash Cans

Dirty Clothes

Go Play!!

Pretty simple, really. They pick out their breakfast for the most part. When they are done, they help clean up the mess made in the kitchen and help with putting away the dishes. Then they go get dressed, make their bed, and brush their teeth. They each empty a trashcan from the bathrooms and bring the dirty clothes to the laundry room. Easy peasy, most days... They get to go play until Austin decides to take a nap which signals time for school.

As for rewards... We kind of dropped that whole thing. They already have too many toys, why add more to that mess? And we attempted the "beginner's allowance" with failure - get a quarter for doing their jobs without fuss. So, they get a sticker or tattoo for helping around the house sometimes. They are happy. I am happy. And, the house is picked up. That's how we do it.

How about you? Do your kids have a morning routine? What kind of reward system do you use?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not sure where to start in handing our jobs to your littles? Start here: 

Seventh Generation Blog - Age Appropriate Chores