Motivated Moms asked the TOS Review Crew to review their planners. I looked at these years ago, but ended up not using it. This time around, I decided my life could use a little direction. Holidays, trips and illnesses had taken their toll on my energy and our home. I needed a no-brainer method to tackle things around here. I chose the 2014 Motivated Moms Chore Planner with Scheduled Bible Reading {B&W}.
A view of the daily planner layout without scripture reading (in color).
The Motivated Moms planners come in a variety of options for you to choose from. First, you can either get them in color or black & white. I chose black and white because I wasn’t sure how much color I had in my printer.
Second, you can choose between a daily view or a weekly view. The daily format has daily chores, today’s menu, weekly chores, a place to write notes, and room to add any appointments. All of this is on one page per day. The weekly format has dailies and weeklies for the entire week on one page. Both styles include a two week menu planning page in the back.
Third, you can choose to have a daily scripture reading schedule included in your planner. Or not.
Fourth, you can choose to have a half page size (5.5″ x 8.5″) or a whole page size (8.5″ x 11″) for your planner.
Fifth, you can choose analog (e-book to print) or digital (app).
With so many choices, it’s easy to choose a chore schedule to fit your style and needs.
A view of the weekly planner layout without scripture reading (in color).
Like I said earlier, I chose the 2014 Motivated Moms Chore Planner with Scheduled Bible Reading {B&W}. I had mine printed and comb bound to make it easier for me to carry around the house and use.
At first, I wrote names beside the assigned chores, but I found this messier than I liked. So now, I color code our pages. I chose one color per person plus another color for a chore that involves most or all of us (the kids and me). I love colorful things, so this appeals to my creative side.
At the beginning of the week, I sit down and color code the chores for the week, and then go over the chores for that day. So far, we seem to ignore the chart on Sundays, and I end up going over both Sunday and Monday chores every Monday. It works, but I really like the idea of doing something to pamper ourselves on Sunday. We’ll get there.
Once the kids finish their chores, they let me know, and then mark it off the list. Ideally, I’d go inspect the chores. I’m a work in progress. And so is this routine.
A view of my color coded planner ready to go for the week.
I’ll let the kids tell you first:
“It portions the chores out so you don’t have too much to do each day, but you still get the chores done.” Chrystiana (17)
“I like it. It’s working for once. It’s fast and accessible. The one thing I don’t like about it, is it has chores on it.” Christian (14)
“It’s annoying, but I like it.” Jake (10) When asked why it’s annoying: “Too much chores.” When pushed on that point: “Not too much really.”
“I think it’s pretty good except for the chore part.” Amber (8) Her solution is that we build a robot or Dalek to do our chores for us.
Now, my younger three were joking, mostly, about the chore part. They don’t feel like it’s a burden at all. They just don’t want to do chores. Period. But that’s a whole other issue. I’m thinking we need to do a study on why hard work is important and how to have a positive attitude about it. But back to the review…
A view of my color coded planner at the end of the week. All “finished”.
We all like having it laid out in an easy to follow format. And we know that if a chore is skipped, it will come back up again. Not that we skip any. Oh no. We do ALL the chores EVERY week. Cough. Just don’t look too closely at a “finished” week in the picture above. Seriously, I love the freedom to not feel terrible for not getting to everything. I know it will come back around again.
I like assigning the chores at the beginning of the week for all of us, and then not having to think about it every day. We just check the chart. My main goal is to have most of it done by the end of the week. I can easily see if they have earned free time on the weekend with this planner.
For the most part, the schedule of the chores work for me, but I would probably do some things more often. However, I want to see how this goes for a while longer to really know what I think of this schedule. There are some things that haven’t shown up in these few weeks of the review period. I also ended up not using the Bible reading schedule at all. I have an app I use to track my reading, and I still prefer that.
A close-up view of my color coded planner.
I’ve learned that my kids like to check things off. And so do I. They liked having the planner handy and lightweight to manage their own chores. I like being able to color code the assignments. I love that they can be more independent with their chores. I do think I need to check their work before they can check it off the list though. Accountability is important as we do have some bad habits to overcome. For that matter, holding myself to not having my free time before my chores are done would be good, too. Ouch.
Overall, this has been a wonderful asset to our home, and we will continue using the planner at this point. I do recommend Motivated Moms to anyone who is feeling overwhelmed by their home, or doesn’t have a working system in place at the moment. It’s easy to jump in and get started right where you’re at in both you house and the date you start with this. You will move systematically through your house, and the things you missed before you started the planner, will come back around again.
They weren’t really this happy about their chores. I actually said, “Everyone look at Christian’s nostril hairs.” That cracked them all up.
2014 Motivated Moms Chore Planner with Scheduled Bible Reading {B&W} costs $8. You can see a sample at the link. I believe all the e-book versions are the same price, but you can find out for sure on their site.
They also have apps for your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Android.
Motivated Moms can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
So what do you think? Does this type of planner appeal to you? Have you used or are you using Motivated Moms? Leave a comment, and let me know!
Ahsanul Karim says
I will surely share this article with all the moms to know how can they make the whole thing quite interesting with the kids.Nice article.
Audra Marie says
Thank you. 🙂
Jody Cowan says
No kids like chores. lol But this looks like a great to schedule things. I’m going to look into this. I really need to do it. Great review, btw.
Jody
Jody Cowan recently posted:Have You Seen Molly?
Audra Marie says
I’m glad you liked my review. I hope it works for you if you decide to try it. Thanks for visiting. 🙂