Is your house a mess? Do you wish you could find a fun way for your kids (or hey, maybe even your husband) to help you out? Well Laurie L. Allen and Michael M. Cassisi have come up with a new way for you to get those kids to pitch in.
It's called the Deck of Chores and the idea is to turn chores into a fun game.
The Deck of Chores is a combination of playing cards with the name of a chore in the center of each card. The deck comes with the standard 52 cards. There are 12 different chores and 4 blank "Parents Choice" cards that allow you the flexibility of creating custom chores.
You can go the simple route and let your children choose a card from the deck and that's the chore they are assigned for the day, or you can play games where the winner is the first person to get rid of all their chore cards and the rest of the family must perform the chores shown on the cards left over in their hand.
The deck came with a few fun examples on different ways you can use the cards.
Talking about them is great, but the most important thing is knowing if they really work. Well the idea is fantastic. Anything that gets kids to pitch in I'm all about. The bright colors and fun pictures really attracted both of my children. As soon as the deck arrived they asked if they could look at them. The box was easy for them to open and the cards are nice and sturdy and difficult to tear. If the deck had been flimsy I could see my children destroying them in the first few days. But they held up very well.
My youngest daughter is 2 years old so the chores in the deck are a little too advanced for her. I really don't expect her to do a load of laundry or organize the garage. But the interest was definitely there and I knew I had to option of filling in the Parent's Choice cards to better fit her needs. But overall, for her, the cards were more fun to look at.
My 5 year old couldn't perform all of the chores in the deck, but she could easily help out with MOST of them. She really enjoyed playing the games suggested in the rules. She's always been a fan of card games, so finding a card game that she likes AND helps me out around the house is like double bonus days at my favorite store. If she ended up with a chore that she couldn't perform we simply traded her for one that she could. Turning mundane chores into a game really worked!
I have to admit, this game is a fantastic idea, but it's certainly something my girls need to grow into a little more. I feel that it's a better fit for older children and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with children younger than 5. The oversized cards are great in terms of readability and sturdiness, but tough for little hands to hold on to. Also one of the chore cards, Set Table & Cleanup After Dinner, was definitely geared toward an older audience. The photo of the couple having nothing but wine for dinner seemed a bit... odd.
Then again, it's quite possible they've been spying on a few of MY dinners lately. Liquid lunch has NOTHING on liquid dinner lemme tell ya ;-)
For just $14.99 you can get your own Deck Of Chores Cards Here!
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