Ah, Chores... it's that never ending battle (usually with yourself)
of whether or not it's worth it that day to get your kids to do their
chores. I'm sure this is the case in most homes, we tend to change our
Chore routine, rewards, plan of attack, etc, every so often. We went
with the sticker reward chart for a long time, which the kids liked...
for a while. Stickers can only be so exciting... especially when baby
sister LOVES stickers and takes them all off the chart.
We
have tried a few other ideas but nothing seems to really get the kids
motivated. So I decided to revamp our chore routine. This is not a
brand new idea, but for us, parts of it are new. What is most exciting
for me, is that the kids LOVE this idea, which of course is bonus for
me.
We have a designated "Computer Day" (Wednesday) and "Wii Day"
(Saturday). Generally they would get 30-60 minutes to play, 30 if they
weren't 100% in to all their duties for the week and 60 if they went
above and beyond. They usually landed somewhere around 40 to 45
minutes. There were always extra ways to earn minutes, and of course
ways to lose minutes. It was hard to keep track after a while... in
came the new plan.
Tokens.
They HAVE to do 3 Saturday Chores drawn randomly from the Chore Bucket,
and for each chore completed they earn 2 minutes (up to 5 minutes for
the nasty chores like Cleaning the Toilet) of Electronic Entertainment
of their choice (come designated days). They also have a chance to earn
more minutes by doing more token chores. Then of course there are there
Daily Morning and Evening Duties that they are required to take care
of.
They
also earn minutes by doing these (I haven't created the tokens for
these yet... I ran out, I have Popsicle sticks so I may use those
instead), however, not for each individual duty, but rather if they
finish all the "Morning Duties" they will get a token/popsicle stick
with a morning picture on it, well that's the idea anyway. They are
more often than not really good at taking care of these simple morning
and evening routines so they always get at least 28 minutes of brain
dead time, once a week.
The
Chore Can in on on fridge at the moment, not sure for now where it will
end up, but this will do for the time being. I covered a pint size
paint can with scrapbooking paper that I've had since 2002 (does anyone
scrap book anymore??) and then mod podged over it for durability. I
love mod podge. The "tokens" are 1.5" wooden discs that Joann sells, I
had these left over from another project so I used them. Just printed
off clipart onto slightly smaller circles that I created in Microsoft
Publisher and glued them on using Tacky Glue. Then Mod Podged over them
as well.
I
haven't finished making the kids cans to put their tokens into once
their chore is finished, but they are all really excited about it.
Honestly, so am I, how easy it will be to change the reward when
something entices them more. This would be so easy to adapt to any
child of any age, video games, TV, allowance, time with friends, earn up
to a certain amount and get a sleepover or late night, Trip to the
children's museum, anyway, you get the idea, the possibilities are
endless.
With our children computer games are the key right now... to prove that, I woke up to this sign this morning on the table...
and
a PERFECTLY picked up and straightened house. Denver didn't forget any
of the rooms. It is Wednesday... think she was trying to earn extra
minutes today?? ;o)
We also have a Dinner Duties chart that the
kids follow, I considered adding minutes for these, but these are
established so well already that I didn't want them to think it was an
option ;o)
