Monday, June 23, 2008

Children and Chores...

With Summer here and many hours of the day to occupy...I have been wondering how to best teach my children to work and do hard things ("We Can Do Hard Things" is our family motto-a whole other topic). And of course, playing is important too.
Maddie is totally at the age where she can really help around the house. There really isn't anything she can't do (don't tell, but I've even let her use my sharp Santoku knife and she is really good at it!). She loves to help in the kitchen with cooking and especially baking. So I wanted to take full advantage of this important teaching time in her life.

Well, I found this thing called My Reward Board and I am in love! No more "chore charts" on the wall, door or refrigerator-it's all done on the computer.


sample from myrewardboard.com

We have been using it for two weeks and have found huge success-especially with Maddie. I have taught her to clean her own bathroom and she is really good at it! We have no more arguments on practicing the piano either. She has not missed a day of practice in two weeks. She waters the garden and flower pots daily, helps with dinner, laundry, etc. I never have to ask her to do her jobs and her behavior is joyful. She asks many times throughout the day "Do you have a favor?" And Will is doing so great too! He even has special jobs like emptying the inside trash cans each week, taking them to the outside trash and bringing in the empty trash cans on trash days. The chore chart is only one part of it...there is a virtual piggy bank (so if you don't pay allowance on a weekly basis because you forget, your child can't come to you months down the line and tell you you owe them $80.00!), demerit system, reward system, goal setting-it's the best thing I've found. Check it out!

4 comments:

Chelsea said...

I'm glad you found something like this, then I won't have to hound them to do their chores. We'll give it a try and hopefully have the same success! TKS for sharing!

Anonymous said...

I found with my kids that entering the points into the computer was a lot of fun for 3-4 weeks, then it got boring and they stopped. I then started to do it myself (I can tell you how long THAT lasted ;-)

Probably jut poor parenting!

I'd love to hear how long this lasts with your kids. Please let us know.

Jocelyn said...

Do they make one for husbands? ;)

Anonymous said...

It has now been about 6 weeks since you started using the system. How's it going? Is it still being used? What's your learning? I'd love to hear (I like the idea of one for husbands too ;-)