Review: Everyday Homemaking

Chores has been something that has been hit or miss in our house. When my first child was born I included him in everything. He helped me around the house cleaning, cooking, etc.  When the second child was born we continued pretty much in the same manner. The third child was born early, spent some time in the hospital and then there were constant appointments and therapies. It seemed that somehow chores started falling away.  My oldest seemed the best equipped to do any chore or activity that was given to him.  My daughter was pretty good, but as she got older I realized there were some things we needed to work on more.  The youngest is the one that seemed the least capable of doing the chores required of him.  I've looked at several programs or systems, but they just never seemed to work well for us.  Enter in Everyday Homemaking and I think things are looking up!


The book, The Everyday Family Chore System, arrived nicely bound and just waiting to be put into use! I spent a few days reading through the book and looking at the printable pages.  There is a basic principle of assigning chores, teaching your child the chore, making sure your child is successful with the chore and rotating those chores. There were also several suggestions on how to implement the chores.  One idea I liked for younger children was to use clothes pins to clip their chores on their clothing. That keeps them focused on the job at hand. I decided to go with a basic chart and put both the daily and weekly chores on it.

 I sat down and first thought long and hard about what chores I thought the kids should be assigned.  Our oldest is 18 and is pretty busy with work and school. I decided not to include him in this and just ask him when I needed certain things gone. Previously I assigned the kids one chore to do for the month. They switch off on taking out the compost, recycling and trash. I decided to leave the oldest with that one chore and focus more on the younger two. I came up with a daily and weekly items and then I started writing out my cards. I've heard of this before where you write down everything that needs to be done for the chore. I've honestly never tried it, but really like the idea.  It was interesting because a few cards I had to write over because I missed something.  It really makes you think about all the steps in doing specific chores. Also, there shouldn't be a problem with it being done completely because the children have all the requirements listed for it to be done correct. 

I really like the idea of making the cards because if I check behind them and something is incorrect I can just go back to the cards with them.  I also explained that if they mark the item off on their chart and I go back to check it there shouldn't be an argument on their end if it's not done correctly. If it's marked off then I take it that the chore is completed and done correctly.  My kids like having the same chore all the time, but I know they need to learn to do everything around the house.  My plan is to continue to tweak the daily chores as well as the weekly chores. I like the idea of them doing something for a month because that gives a decent amount of time to work on the skill. I'm going to probably give them another two weeks and then adjust the chores. I plan to switch some of the weekly chores and possibly add others. 

My daughter doesn't like the idea of the chart because she really feels she's too old. I explained to her that this will help communication between the two of us. We consistently have issues where I say I told her to do something and she says I didn't. I explained to her that this way what I expect is right there in black & white. I can tell with one glance if she's completed it or not and that should cut down on any miscommunication we have been having.  

Here are a few examples from the book.  One is a list of ways to use the system which I really liked. It showed me from the very beginning that I didn't have to do it one specific way, I could adjust it to our family. Blank printable cards are in the back for you to fill out as you need/want. There are also cards ready for you to copy with the way Mrs. Bentley used them. I chose to fill out our own because I knew my youngest would get confused if there was the slightest difference in how we do it.  

If you are interested in additional information check out their Facebook page.  For this review we had the option of The Everyday Family Chore System or Everyday Cooking. I've heard there are tons of yummy recipes in the Everyday Cooking book.  If your interested in any of these items Vicki Bentley has generously give us a code to share with everyone for 10% off either of these items!! The code is TOS10books.  Here is a quick note from Mrs. Bentley regarding the code: they can apply it to as many books in their cart as they'd like, but they do need to shop first, apply the 10% discount code last. (Sorry -- eccentric cart function) Expires Sept 5.