... an easy, effective, and engaging way to help the family team enjoy the needed mundane work of picking up and learning personal responsibility in a fun way. The children become valued and contributing members, on their level, and the clothespins help to keep everything available and kid-friendly. Everyone pulls together to get things accomplished. It worked while my children were young, and would work for any age, as long as the family is willing and able to still see their time as a team with a mission...to build an atmosphere that encourages personal responsibility, personal involvement, and personal achievement while building a welcoming place of refuge, rest and fun!
-Vanessa Justice, homeschool mom [and former mayor], Hopewell VA Before I began home schooling, I felt I was a pretty good home manager. After I began home schooling, life felt out of control. While I had it easy in many respects – only three children at the time, two of whom were old enough to help – I still found it challenging to have a home focus while trying to do school for a sizable chunk of my day. Thankfully, I had excellent mentors during my second year who helped me realize that I didn’t need to reproduce a classroom situation each day to effectively educate my children. That helped a great deal. It was years before I found the key to my home management challenges though. How I wish this book had been available then!
The beauty of Vicki’s book is its simplicity. So many organizational books and systems load you with details. You feel like you need a whole semester just to digest it all! However, a week-end with The Everyday Family Chore System (and one trip to the copy store) will have you up and running in training your children and keeping home life running smoothly. She begins Part 1 with her four basic principles – “have realistic and age-appropriate expectations; establish rules or standards; have a working knowledge of family discipline; tie strings to their hearts.” She includes a resource list in the back to help you find more information on these principles if you need it.
Part 2 is the practical section. In “Implementing the Plan” she walks you through a basic description of the system, an illustration of how she set up her system, tips for success, and samples of realistic family schedules. She also includes a very helpful “Life Skills Checklist”. (This one’s a bit daunting though. I still haven’t mastered about 20% of what’s on the teen-age list!) Also included is a discussion of rewards and consequences. Because she’s raised children all the way to adulthood, she includes a helpful explanation of how the “system” changed over the years to adapt to the growing skills and character of her children.
Part 3 is the section you’ll take to the copy store. Vicki has pre-made the chore list which includes all the basic chores you’d need to keep a healthy, clean, well-run home. There are blanks for you to add your own as well. My favorite part, though, is the “how- to” cards to copy. There are fifty-two detailed instruction cards for your child on such chores as “Tidy the Kitchen”, “Clean Refrigerator”, “Clean Bathroom”, and “Empty Dishwasher”. See, she’s done the bulk of the work for you! Your child can use the cards as much as needed until the skill becomes habit.
My grown children had to learn to manage my clumsy attempts at “chore cards”. This year I’m giving them a copy of Vicki’s book so they’ll be much better at this than I was.
-Linda Trumbo, former KONOS representative and bookstore owner...The first two parts of the book include information on training the child how to complete a cleaning assignment thoroughly, but the most valuable part of this book is contained in the third part - the How-to-Do-It chore system, complete with reproducible cards and job labels. As the parent of an autistic child, my son has to be told EXACTLY how to do something each step of the way. I can’t just tell him to "go get your dusting done." I have to remind him each time what needs to be dusted. The job card in this guide about dusting gives a list of items to dust! So, he could just carry the card with him and not have to listen to me remind him over and over again. ...
I have been teaching my children life skills and the basics of home economics using various books, but I will definitely be incorporating both of these books [EFCS and Everyday Cooking] as I continue to teach my children all that they need to know to live on their own after they leave the comforts of my home!
-Kris Price, Assistant to the Publisher, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC (From her personal blog; used with permission.)
The Everyday Family Chore System - reviews
