With school starting next week we've been making an effort this week to get back into our normal school year routine as much as possible so hopefully the transition won't be as challenging for the boys. So we've switched back to doing chores, cleaning up the bedrooms that we neglected all summer long, the boys have been better at getting in their daily piano practice, and we switched from getting up at 7am in the summer to getting the family up at 6am for family scripture study (we've found over the years that the only good time for our family to do scripture study is in the morning, because our schedule is always changing in the evenings and we're all less likely to fall asleep while reading in the mornings). So, on Monday when I informed the boys that we were going back to our normal routine of their daily responsibilities (each boy regularly has one main chore, piano practice, and has to help clean up his room each day) the boys asked if they could trade chores. It's been a while since they traded around, so I was fine with that. For the last year or so Kolby has been in charge of vacuuming upstairs, Eli walking the dogs, Camden sorting and putting away a couple loads of laundry, Isaac sweeping downstairs, and Courtland doing the dishes once a day. So the boys started into a debate about who wanted to trade chores with who, each trying to secure what he felt was one of the easier chores. They went back and forth for a while, before Isaac, Eli, and Kolby had an idea to rotate chores each day. I didn't love the idea at first -- I was thinking about how it could be hard to remember who was doing what each day, but after a while I warmed to the idea. 5 kids and 5 weekdays a week means they could each rotate and have the chores be as "fair" as possible. (Woohoo, after all these years when many occasions would have been more convenient to have an even number of kids -- rides with two seats each, each of the kids wanting to split a meal at a restaurant, etc. -- finally a time when having 5 kids is the most convenient solution!) Camden and Courtland were not excited about rotating chores. (Camden probably mostly because he just has a hard time accepting the idea of change). But after a while I just made an executive decision and told them we were going to try this out for a month and we can reevaluate at that time. After I told them we were doing the rotating schedule, Eli started talking about trading chores with someone else for the day, and I told him we weren't going to trade -- often when kids trade chores for the day the result is one or the other not doing a good job or leaving it undone, and arguments about one working harder than the other, etc. I just didn't want to deal with that, and I told him there wasn't really a need to trade because everyone would have a chance to do each different chore once a week. It's the most fair option I could think of, actually. Elijah was not excited about that, but he got over it eventually. And the best thing was, once all the debating and arguing about deciding on the chores was finished, they all went and finished their chores relatively quickly and painlessly. I made them a chart (and hung it up on the backs of bedroom & closet doors throughout the house so a little reminder would always be available if needed (and I included the chore descriptions because some of the responsibilities changed a bit since last time, and I didn't want to deal with arguments about what parts of the chores they did or didn't need to do). So, they did the chores all week, and I am actually loving this system so far! Very little arguing about their chores, and so far they've been motivated to complete them quickly most days. So it seems like it may work out.
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