Amazing

Doug and Andy (and Josie by default) have chores. So far their chores have only been to put their shoes in their closet, pick out their own clothes in the morning (it happens most of the time), and to put their clothes in the laundry hamper (this is the best kept chore because they like to slam dunk their clothes in the basket or to race to get it there).
I have discovered in the process that I am definitely NOT a chart person. As much as I love a good list, I cannot keep up with a chart for more then a week. I suppose this goes along with the fact that I can deal with ten days of dosing medicine for children but if one starts later then I start forgetting doses after the first child stops so that the second child has random timing on the medicine. I think I must have issues with doing things "long term" or something.

Anyway, we (or perhaps it is I) decided that the boys were soon to be four so it was time to add another chore to the list. I gave them the choice of making their beds, keeping books picked up, or keeping their toys picked up in the toy room. As much as I love having a downstairs playroom where I can shut the door... it means I have a downstairs playroom where I can shut the door and ignore the mess.
Amazingly they choose picking up the playroom so I actually have a clean (you can actually see the floor...I could vacuum if I were that motivated!) playroom this evening. It probably helped that they received Nerf guns as gifts and it is much easier to find the "bullets" when you do not have to search through piles of stuff on the floor.
I think it is time to whittle out some toys since they were losing momentum towards the end and it makes sense that you should only have as many toys as you are willing to clean-up.