Chore Time

Sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get these kids to do their chores. We've done sticker charts, we've given them a weekly allowance, I've even reached my limit and yelled on more than one occasion. All of those things work to some degree but I didn't always get results. I made this chore chart last year and I love the way it looks. All of the kids chores are listed and below the chore there are dots for the days of the week the chore has to be done. They put a check mark on the dot when they do the chore and at the end of the week we count the checks, erase the dots then at the end of the month we add all the weeks together and pay them for their chores. This worked for a couple of months but they eventually got tired of it and frankly, so did I. (Sorry, this is a terrible picture)

In my resolutions post I mentioned that we were working on a new chore system. It's hard to find something that will work for a 12 year old a 4 year old and in between but I think we finally found something that works. We started this in mid January and I think we have worked out the kinks and my kids happily do their chores (most of the time, we're not perfect here).

They each have a list of everything they have to do in a day. It's broken down into morning, afterschool, and evening. They can earn up to seven "dollars" in a day. They can also earn extra dollars for doing extra things. But there are consequences when they don't do chores. They don't just not get the dollar for that chore, they loose a dollar. They all have four morning chores, if they only do two of them they don't earn any "dollars". At the end of the month they can bring their dollars to the family store and cash in. The family store has things that I pick up on clearance or at the dollar store, it has candy and it has a few bigger ticket items (hopefully they will learn a little about saving). The kids knew there was going to be a store but I didn't present the items to them at first. And they did alright with their chores. But when I brought out the basket of goodies with the prices on them they were totally motivated. Tueday night we did our first cash in. Caveman had the most dollars. 23. He bought an incredible hulk bobble head for 15 and a box of Gobstoppers for 5. He is saving the remaining 3 for an i-tunes card that costs 50. Sassypants had 19 and bought two five dollar boxes of candy and is saving the rest for a shirt next month. Rockstar had 20 and spent it all on a Littlest Pet Shop and was kind of disappointed that she didn't get any candy. Cowboy had 15 and got some colored pencils and Cars dominos. Caveman realized they actually have the opportunity to earn 210 dollars in a month and they all agreed that their totals were pretty lousy. But now they are very motivated. Even Cowboy. I got out of the shower this morning and went to check on the little boys. Baby was still asleep but Cowboy was gone and his bed was made! He made his bed without being asked! In the dark so he wouldn't wake up his brother!

So for now, we have success. Hopefully it will last. I'll keep you posted.