Lorri
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| Posted: Dec 29 2007 at 4:15pm | IP Logged
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Yes! I've used it and I like it better than MOTH!
I really can't say enough about it. It helps with not having to nap all the time. It helps you to determine which chores you want done and by whom, plus how to help your dc know what to do and how to do it. Here's a review I wrote on another forum:
"This is a great book. I think I'm doing pretty well on training my children to do chores, but I fall too much into the trap of saying, "go clean your rooms" and then expecting them to just know what to do. I know better, but really sometimes it seems the easiest thing to do. The book has some good chapters on why chores are important for children now while they are children and later when they are adults. Then it gets into the real meat - determining what chores need to be done to keep your home running, how often they should be done, when and by whom. If you have more than 4 children, then you will need to order extra ChorePacks when you order the book. Since I only have 2 that I am working with right now, I'm thinking of using one of the chorepacks for myself. I'm not naturally a neat, organized person. I do my chores during choretime, too, so I might as well use one myself.
The system boils down to each child having a set of cards, called ChorePacks, that have their name, chore, time of day (morning, lunch, dinner, etc) and a number written on them. At designated chore time, the child picks up their ChorePack which is loaded into what looks like a name badge holder you'd get at a convention. They wear their chorepack while they accomplish their chores, in the order that they are numbered. When chores are complete, they turn their pack in. If they have more chores to do later, like after dinner, mom loads that chorepack into the holder for the appropriate time. ChorePacks not in use are stored a nice plastic page that sort of looks like a what you'd put baseball cards in, complete with hole punches to put in a binder if you'd like. You could probably recreate their system just from what I've told you, but the holders are all very well constructed, to hold up a lot of use over the years. Plus, you'd miss out on the most important part, the instructions for making the system really work. She includes a huge chore "library" to help you determine what sort of things need to be accomplished in your home. She stresses that the chores that are done in her home and are not necessarily the ones you need to have done yours. She also addresses how to assign a chore, based on age and ability - she calls it "ageability" If you have never had a good chore system in place - this is the book for you. She will take you step by step, from the very basics, through getting a chore system up and running in your home. If you are happy with how things are running in your home, but would like things to be even better - this book will have a lot to offer you!
I am planning on implementing the chorepacks in our family for room cleaning in particular. My dc have several areas of their playroom and bedroom that need to be dealt with everyday. I'm looking forward to not having to remind them every single time to get all the toys out of the bedroom, put all the books away, put the dolls in the cradle, put the stuffed toys on the chain, etc, etc, etc. Those are the kinds of things that'll be in their evening chore packs."
Then as people asked me questions, here are my answers:
"I haven't seen Choreganizers, so i can't compare the two systems. With MOTC, your children do the same chores daily, at the same appointed chore time, in the same prescribed order. You can also have weekly or even monthly chores. Once you have your system going the way you want it, you can leave it alone until you feel you need to add more or switch things around. Much like MOTH, when it works, you keep it. Aside from training and/or inspection, all mom has to do is switch out the cards and have them ready for the next chore time. It's as easy as getting a credit card in and out of your wallet.
This is now our 3rd day using MOTC. Things were a bit rough the first day. That was my fault for not training them properly in the past. I thought I was doing OK, but apparently not. Day 2 was much, much better. Chores were done quickly and mostly correctly. Only small amounts of retraining were needed.
I'm taking notes daily on what I see needs tweaking. Certain chores need to be done in a different order, and I needed to make a "school" card so my over-enthusiastic cleaners wouldn't try to start chores that really need to be done after school. I'll sit down at the end of the week and make those changes permanent."
"I do remember seeing something about dealing with dawdlers, but I skimmed over it. My book seems to have walked off, so I can double check later.
For non-readers, you can use clipart of your own, I think they have clipart on their website which you can access after getting the book, or you can take a picture of your child doing the chore and cut it down to fit the chorepacke. For my dd who reads a little, I used small words when I could and explained each card to her so she could read what she could and just recognize what she needs to do"
"his is how I used it:
Morning chores - very simple, like make bed, brush teeth, clear away breakfast dishes, get table ready for school, dd puts a clip in her hair.
Evening - this is our big clean up from the day. My dc have 15 chores each in their chorepacks!!!!! But they combine into 2 large chores - clean up living room and clean up their bedroom or playroom, depending on the child. So the 15 chores are the little steps all broken down like this:
Fold blankets in living room
Put away books in living room
Straighten shoe storage
Empty toy basket
then they move upstairs
Ds works on the playroom like this:
Dress up clothes away
Books in bins
Magazines on shelf
All toys in proper bins
Craft supplies away...
DD works on their bedroom:
Stuffed animals on chain
dolls in cradle
all toys back to playroom
books in bin
So while it is 15 individual steps, it's not a ton of chores. It's also 15 things each that I don't have to nag about! Woo hoo!"
I wrote all that 2 years ago when the book first came out, so my children do more chores now that they are older.
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Lorri
mom to    
The Mac and Cheese Chronicles
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: Managers of their chores
