Preschool Age Chore Packs

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I just revisited our chore packs yesterday. The kids were getting sick of the same old chores and wanting to expand their expertise in household cleaning. Of course, I graciously complied and came up with the most awesomely, fun, surprise new chores. The waited for me with their hands outstretched and eyes closed on the couch. Seriously... chores are just that much fun at our house. However, don't get all stressed out about the overwhelming amount of obedience and joy in our house because, sadly, the chores ended with much crying and one child complaining about being outside by himself. Whoa... I wasn't expecting it to go down like that.

However, I am happy to report the chores are still a hit, the children have forgotten the tears and can't wait for tomorrow! 

This is how we do it at the Bartlett house. Chore Packs. I found them on a blog and thought they would work great for us and they have, for almost a year now. I took pictures of all their chores, printed them in wallet size prints on my home printer. Then I put them in old school wallet picture holders ( I don't even know what you call them). I attached pictures with binder rings and hung a string around to put over their head. I put their picture in the first slot so they can find their pack easily. I found everything in the office section at Walmart.

Here is our chore list for the new year. 

Spencer (age 4):

• Get Dressed
• Brush Teeth
• Make Bed
• Pick Up Room
• Wipe Down Toilets
• Empty Trash
• Pick up Living Room Floor
• Fill the Diaper Basket
• Shovel the Sidewalk

Jack (age 3):

• Get Dressed
• Brush Teeth
• Make Bed
• Pick Up Room
• Scrub Toilets
• Straighten Shoes
• Vacuum Living Room
• Wash Kitchen Table
• Shovel Sidewalk

Honestly, I am going to make on for Abigail too (almost 2) because she wants to be included so badly. I don't get all stressed out about the job being done perfectly. I, mostly, do it because it helps get us going in the morning, helps keep the house from a total melt-down, helps get the boys moving and burning some energy. 

Here are some examples of the pictures I take to slip in there. Nothing fancy. It just needs to be something to jog their memory. They usually memorize them so quickly that in a week or two they don't even wear the chore pack anymore.

Empty Trash

Brush Teeth

Get Dressed

Fill diaper basket

Pick up room

Shovel sidewalk (Spencer did this all by himself...isn't that amazing?)

Here are some that I took out from last time ( I will save these and rotate them in later):

Water Plant

Empty Silverware

I have been waiting to do this since the first of the year. I didn't get around to it until now, but I wished I did it earlier. It just helps our morning go so much smoother. The first week or too it takes a lot of work on my part to show them how to do a new chore, but after that... it totally pays off!

Loving School, Hating Busywork

Pin It I am having a hard time not being a hater of preschool. I have scoured too many blogs where I see moms creating lapbooks, doing unit studies and 90 different things with play dough. Honestly, I don't really care if other moms want to do that. It is all about your motives, but it seems so crazy to me. My kids love to play, read books and anything to do with learning. I want to keep it that way. I want them to LOVE to learn and not have to sit at my dining room table for an hour until they get a concept right.

"Cut, my man, CUT"

I just think it is so wrong to evaluate a 4 years old on how well they can cut or color. Do we think they will never learn to cut? Will they be sixteen and have not learned to draw straight line? If they really love books and when you read to them they will be motivated to learn their ABC's.

That being said, we ARE doing school this year. Not because I think they need to meet certain standards, but mostly because they are kids and they get bored and start bugging each other if they are left to play all day. We need to have a schedule or mom and everyone else struggles. When we move from thing to thing it keep the day interesting and gives us some sort of structure. I want my boys to know how to sit quietly and play and I have a ton of fun things that I would love to do with them.

We start our school time asking, "why do we do school?". The answer is to love God, to praise God, and to obey God. If we are not doing that then it is pointless. The main focus of our school time is the Word of God. I know my kids will learn to cut and color, but they will not know the word of God with out some active memorization and study. We are memorizing scripture and reading bible stories as much as we can!

So... here are a few pics from the first day of school!

 Recess! Except the dress code was very informal, if not, nonexistent. 

"MOM, we were making mud." Of course you were. 

Reading about Adam and Eve and coloring... or swording...

Pleasant Words

Pin It Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24


This is our memory verse for this week. In the spirit of humility, I need to say I can hear one of my boys yelling at the other while they are picking up their room right now. Not very pleasant words.

With a lot of prayer and repetition hopefully the Lord will prick our hearts this week to be pleasant in our speech to one another.

Here are a couple of practical ways we helped this verse to sink in:

• Took out the honey and let them get a taste of it on their finger. Yummmm! very sweet. We like honey!
• We talked about where honey came from and how it is made.
• Then we talked about eating dirt, or vinegar, or worms and how those were not sweet like honey. Which one would they rather eat?
• That is one way we can bless other people, with our pleasant words. They are so powerful they can even bring healing to others.
• We colored some honeycomb and honey pages from here  http://www.surfnetkids.com/games/bee_coloring_pages.htm
• When we go to the store this week we will pick up some Honeycomb cereal and talk about our verse when we eat our breakfast.

The words spoken in our home our powerful. What kind of words fill your home?

Daily Bible Time

Pin It I picked up two books for the boys on my bookstore date with my hubby. These have been an easy way to get  a bible story and a fun activity in for the day without much prep on my part. I try to do this a couple times a week, but the boys love it so much they ask to do it most every day. I don't have to be creative because all I have to do it read a story and help put some stickers on. This opens up a world of conversation when we get to talk about who gave Samson his strength and how God helped David when Goliath was so big and strong. Now I hear the boys talking about being the Israelites when they are in their room playing.

The first book is the Read and Share Bible. It comes with two DVDs. I read the story to the boys and then they get to watch it on the DVD. This is quite a treat since we have limited TV watching in our house. 

The second book is all stickers. There are a different assortment of stories in the sticker bibleThere is a short description of a story and then 5-7 stickers to put on that go with that story. The stickers are amazing and very detailed and they boys LOVE them. The sticker book doesn't have all the same stories and the Read and Share Bible, but if there are parallel stories I do them both on the same day to reinforce the story a little more. If the stories don't line up I find the matching story in another bible or we will just watch the DVD one day and do the sticker bible the next day.

However we do it, it is a great way to get some great bible stories in and talk about the God who made it all happen.

Some little sweet treats that I have noticed since we have started reading these:

• Spencer telling me we don't have to be scared because Jesus lives in our heart.
• Jack saying we can do something because God helped Samson push down the pits (he refuses to say pillars, they are pits. I think we have a little bit of Joseph and his brothers throwing him in the pit mixed in there.)