This summer flew by for us. Just the other day I was contemplating going on another vacation before school started, and before I knew it, there was only one week left of summer. I'm not really sure how it went by so fast, but it did, and while I'm excited for school to start back up, I'm also worried. This will be the first year ALL my kids are in school. I'm worried that without a schedule, without a chore chart, without teaching my kids about responsibility, I might get stuck having even more work to do, despite the fact they are all in school. I'm afraid that afternoons are going to be a zoo around here, when everyone gets home, and that the house will look like a tornado struck it by 6pm every day.
I'm also worried that another year might go by of me constantly trying to clean house, and never getting anywhere. I'm worried that I will end up making my kids beds, putting their laundry away, picking up their toys, and being cranky because they never do it. I'm worried, but very hopeful that this year will be different. I've been searching for an online chore chart for a while. One that is a free online job chart, one that is easy to use, and flexible. This past week, I found one. Which is also my newest sponsor.
Here's how I made it work for my family.
Above you can see an example of what the kids DAILY responsibilities are. I know it looks like a lot, but with my kids I need to be super technical. I need to be specific, that taking a shower, INCLUDES putting a towel away, or wiping down the sink, or toilet after they use the bathroom. I also tried to include things like morning workouts, practicing their music, and of COURSE studying, homework, and their Kumon DAILY.
For the most part these activities get minimal allowance, only 5cents per activity. With a couple earning 50cents, like KUMON, and GOOD BEHAVIOR at school. Those are very important and I expect that they are done everyday.
I've decided that in order for them to pick extra jobs and earn extra money, they MUST earn at least $2.75 out of the possible $3.05 out of their daily total. This pretty much ensures that if they skip out on the big ones, LIKE homework, they won't make their daily goal. Therefor won't be able to make extra money, and also won't be able to purchase free time, play time, etc.
This kind of balances itself out, IF they do their daily chores, and responsibilities, then they can trade it in for computer time, play time, etc. There really won't be extra money left over, unless they are very disciplined.
There are spots where you can enter extra jobs for each child, BUT I choose to just add an EXTRA WORK child. This is where I added all the extra jobs that are available to complete everyday. I like doing it like this, because I can customize jobs on specific days, or even once a month. Then they log in each day and see whats available that day. If I were to assign extra jobs per child, by checking the EXTRA JOBS tab, then I can't specify when or how often these extra jobs can be done.
This is where they can make a bunch of extra money. YES a bunch, as in something like $575.00 of cash up for grabs every month. As of now, at least, I may add more as I think of activities.
Now let me explain. My thoughts are simple. This is probably how much money it would cost me every month if I were to hire a housekeeper to clean every week, AT LEAST! Either that or I do the work myself, which I always end up doing by the way. If I offer to pay them instead, I'm REALLY hoping that they will be inspired to help out, without me asking them. My goal is to make them realize that hard work, PAYS off. That if you go out of your way to work hard, or do extra that you should be appreciated, and my way to show them that is by paying them. Just saying thank you, simply doesn't work, trust me I've tried, lol.
Ok, now before you go think I'm totally crazy for paying these kids so much money, let me explain my last part of this system. While I want them to earn well, I want them to understand that in life things cost money, and that they need to be aware of these things, even at a young age. I tell you what, I'm pretty fed up with hearing them say something ONLY costs $50.00. If I make them budget for certain things, like UTILITIES, MORTGAGE, CAR, GAS, FOOD, just like in real life, then they might be more aware how hard it is to EARN money and they might be more careful when they want to spend it too.
I'm thinking I will make it something simple, but cute. Literally send them bills every month, that they are responsible to pay for.
This is TOTAL for all three kids. No matter what somehow they need to come up with the money, even if only one kid pays for everything. Then we will discuss how it felt to do all the work, and what it means to be responsible for someone else, in this case their brother or sister.
Mortgage - $125.00 total
Utilites - $20.00
Car - $10.00
Gas - $5.00
Food - $40.00
Total Bills $200.00 a month
That leaves them potential of making $375 a month, divided between 3 kids, that's $125 a month.
NOT BAD if you ask me!!
I will expect them to put 35% of their earnings in savings. The rest is theirs to spend, OR save.
SO there you have it, my MASTER PLAN. I know it was a lot to take in, but I plan on creating a paper version of this too, just to make it a bit easier VISUALLY to see what needs to be done everyday. Then each night they can log in to their JOB CHART, and get payed for what they did.
I am very eager to see how this system works for us, and will keep you updated.
Remember this is MY way of using it for my family. You can customize this so many ways to make it work for your family, and best of all its FREE.
Go check it out, and teach those kids some responsibility. I think this is awesome.
P.S. Don't call me crazy, but I also think this is a PERFECT solution for a moms everyday chores as well, even for eating healthy, and working out. I plan on seeing how I can make it work to keep myself on track as well, let's see. Reward yourself accordingly, maybe go get your nails done, a massage, or go clothes shopping. Trust me, this is not only for kids.
Go start yours today!!
This review was on behalf of my PAYED sponsor, My Job Chart. While they are a payed sponsor on my blog, they have not payed me for the opinions in this review. This was my personal experience in using this site, and I personally highly recommend it.
