Back To School Boot Camp and Cleaning House

For the past few years we have had a back to school boot camp the week before school starts.  I need this week as much as the kids do!  Since we will be beginning our school year next week, this week is our back to school boot camp week!

My kids are never excited about this week, they always dread it!  This week entails lots of new chore training and getting ourselves onto our school schedule.

My goals for Boot Camp this year are to train my kids in keeping their rooms tidy and learning our new chore system for the new house.  In our old home our cleaning schedule rotated by rooms, so I did the same thing for this house.

Monday- Living Room, Hallway, Bathrooms {vacuum, dust, clean bathrooms, empty trash}, Mom and Dad's Laundry
Tuesday- Kitchen {sweep/mop floor, vacuum rug, wipe table and chairs, clean off the hutch, wipe counters and cabinets and appliances, dust, clean sliding door window}, Boys laundry
Wednesday- School Room and Family room {dust, vacuum, tidy up}
Thursday- Bedrooms and Bathrooms {dust, vacuum, wash sheets, clean bathrooms, mop and empty trash}, Mom and Dad's Laundry
Friday- Living Room, Hallway, Front Entry {dust, vacuum, including stairs, sweep front entry, straighten up shoes}, Boys Laundry
Saturday- Kitchen {sweep/mop floor, wipe table and chairs, clean off hutch, vacuum rug}, Elijah Laundry



I mentioned at the beginning of summer the books I was planning on reading, one of those was entitled Cleaning House by Kay Wills Wyma.  I did not finish reading this book, but with good reason.  I decided that we would be working along with the book and I realized that if I read it all at once I would forget the main points in each section.  So after reading the first three sections, I stopped, and when we are ready to move to the next task I will read that section.

Today we tackled task number one, which is basically learning to make beds and keep a tidy room.  In Cleaning House she gives her kids the incentive of earning $1 a day for making their beds and keeping their rooms picked up.  My husband and I decided that $1 was just not in our budget so we decided to stick with $.25 a day, which is basically what they earn for doing some chores.

This morning I sat my boys down and explained what we would be doing.  They were told that they were expected to make their bed, and pick up their rooms every morning.  Every morning by 8:15 I will check their rooms and if their bed is not made or they have clothes or toys on the floor they will lose a quarter, no second chances and no warning will be given.  An attitude we have been dealing with is whining and making excuses, so I emphasized that we would not be tolerating excuses.  My hope is that within the month this will become a habit.

Elijah working hard to get that mess cleaned up!

I am not sure if you can see but Noah's bed is usually filled with books, toys and
stuffed animals!  Once we got it all cleaned up he was loving all the space he had!

They will begin the month with 30 (or 31 depending on the number of days) quarters, and whatever is left over at the end of the month they get to keep and then we will reset their jars with 30 or 31 more quarters.

Tomorrow we will tackle Tuesdays chore list, and go through our morning routine for our school schedule.  Here is a reminder of our schedule for school this year: