New After School Schedule

I forgot to post this yesterday...

I thought about what to do for our new after school schedule so the kids would try and do a better job at their chores and so that there would be less yelling and nagging on my part.

This is what I've come up with:

10 minutes for snack, putting away coats, backpacks and lunch boxes

15 minutes to watch TV and rest from walking home and school

25 minutes to get chores done

So, once the kids get home from school, I set our stove timer for 10 minutes and they can eat their snack and get their stuff all put away. When everyone is done, they will come back in the kitchen and we'll head downstairs to start the timer I have down there for 15 minutes.  They understand that when that timer goes off, the TV gets turned off and it's time to start chores.

I will then reset that timer for 25 minutes and it's time to get chores done, no complaining, no whining.  If chores are done when the 25 minutes is up, video games are allowed to be played that day. If they aren't done with their chores, then there are no video games for the day.

As much as I love chores being done, I think I've decided that if chores aren't finished in time, then the only consequence is no video games. I'm not going to start nagging for them to finish their chores. If they decide that video games aren't important for that day, then I'm okay with their chores not getting finished because I don't want to nag. The whole point of trying out this new schedule is to get rid of the nagging and yelling.

Yesterday was our first day of trying this out and I would say, it went very well. Ten minutes was the perfect amount of time to get their snack eaten and everything put away.  They were super excited to be able to watch some TV before chores had to get done and readily agreed that this was a great idea. As soon as their 15 minutes of TV/resting was up, they turned off the TV and started on their chores. They even did them as fast as they could without a single complaint. It was heaven. I'm sure we'll still have days where they won't want to do their chores and some fighting, but after day 1 of our new after school schedule, I'm super excited to continue it and bring some more peace to our home. Anything that gets me to stop yelling and nagging makes me a happy camper, and I'm sure the kids like not being nagged as well.