experiment

As much as we love our little Matthew, his addition to our family caused our older boys to revert a bit and time is not helping the issue.  Last Monday after both boys insisted on being dressed by Daddy instead of doing it themselves, I hit a wall.  I was done with my 7 and 5 year olds acting like they were completely incapable of doing ANYTHING on their own.
Enter the job chart.
For family home evening on Monday we talked about responsibilities, how everyone does different things to contribute to the family and what happens when they don't do their jobs.   What would happen if Daddy decided to stop going to work?  What would happen if Mama didn't do the laundry?  Etc.
So working together we made a list of things the boys should do on a daily basis and then get to check off each thing once it is completed. 
The transition has gone better than expected.  Samuel loves checking things off his list and will race upstairs to make his bed if he sees that he forgot to do it earlier.  Practicing piano and doing homework are also much easier.  James is getting dressed on his own witout any help at all and cheerfully making his bed and practicing his reading.  They actually cleaned their room last week without me asking!  They also take time to play with Matthew since I put that on the list as well.
Week 1 of the job chart, although not perfect, is a definite improvement.  Why didn't I do this before???