Our Family "Business"

My sister asked me to come and give a 15 minute mini-class at her church last night about organization.  While it could take hours and hours to talk about this topic…. I chose to focus on a few things that are going to help my family once we get into our own home.  (Which is soon! Yay!)

A few months back I was pinning some things on Pinterest and saw something that instantly appealed to me and my long-time hatred of trying to stay on top of the kids with the “chores” around our house.  I was inspired by THIS.  I LOVED the idea of using time cards. While this idea I stumbled on was designed to be used with toddlers I instantly went to work modifying it to fit my big family with children of all ages. 

The thing I love about this concept is the analogy between the home and the workplace.  I can’t wait to sit my family down and talk about how our family is like its own little business where Mom and Dad are the “bosses” and they are the employees.  We all have jobs to do in order to make sure our “company” is running smoothly and is profitable.  Profitability meaning --- there is joy and love and happiness in our home.  That it is organized and taken care of and everyone is learning to be responsible for themselves and their belongings. 

I found these old shutters and painted them to make them work as a time card holder which I will mount on the wall.  Each family member’s card will have their photo on it and will list what specific “job duties” they need to perform each day before they can “clock out” or go to bed at night.  Then... when they get up each morning they "clock" back in for the day. 

One area on the card will have a space to change the weekly chores or “zones” assigned.  Everyone’s card will have the routine type things listed like, prayer, scripture study, pick up room, laundry (if it’s their day), exercise, brushing teeth, etc….. I did ours based on our family’s needs.  Here's a close-up sample of one of the cards.....

I will also talk about how when the company (our family) is profitable and everyone does their part then the employees will get bonuses or rewards for their hard work. 

I’m sooooo excited about this system because once I laminate the time cards then the only thing I will have to stay on top of is changing out what “zones” each child has for the week using a dry erase marker.  Zones is something we will talk about too.  Those will be assigned areas of the house if that makes sense.  And Momma will be able to quickly glance at the wall and see who is still "working" each day. 

Sounds great doesn't it??? Easy enough?  HA HA!!!! I will have to give you an update on this in 6 months so you can see how well it's working.