Helping Hands

This past weekend I attended the homeschool convention in Searcy, AR. I went two years ago and I was so excited to finally go back again. I had to come home early last time (remember my post about my Hubby and poison ivy??) I took along Angel Baby and Dear Daughter #3 (our 8 year old). She attended the children's program during the days and I had Angel baby with me. I experienced the convention to its fullest and saw all I wanted/needed to see. I made sure I covered every square inch of that convention- many times so I wouldn't miss anything.

The very last workshop I attended was about organization. I love to organize, always have. It interests me and I'm OCD at heart- I would label shelves if I could. Maybe some day when all the kids are grown and gone and I have nothing else better to do. Seriously, I dream about how I could organize shelves and label them...

Anyway, the woman who put on this workshop gave me a few new tips that I'll be putting into practice very soon. She also renewed my desire to organize the 'hot spots' in our home (and maintain them better) as well as tackle the rest of our attic -maybe.

Today I am revamping our chore lists for each child and placing them on a 'helping hands' board. Each child will have a small, magnetic white board with all their daily chores listed (weekly will be on a larger board where weekly/extra chores are listed for everyone). I'm going to have each child trace their hand on construction paper and cut it out. After laminating it, I will place a magnetic strip on the back and when they're working on a specific chore (each chore is in the form of a picture), they can place their 'helping hand' over that picture. They will move it from chore to chore until everything is completed.

I'm also changing up our weekly/ extra chore board a little by making rotating lists. There are a few extra things I've added that are divided up by everyone equally. I thought I would rotate those extra things so each child only does that particular task once or twice in a month. We rotate dishes so why not rotate things like vacuuming corners, cleaning certain windows of finger prints, dusting and wiping window sills/trim?

Now, if I can get a handle on all my lists...and organize those....