I got my main concept from a small church class that was taught by another mom a few years ago. I took her idea and changed it slightly to fit our needs and my own style. (That's the best part about these, you can adapt them so easily.) Over the years I have slacked on and off, but that is my own fault. It works if you keep it up!!!
1. Start out with a poster board for each child.
Oh yah, you'd better believe that T (above) got glued on backwards,
then laminated there for all eternity before I noticed. Rrrrgggg.
Hang it in a high-traffic place so they will see it and remember throughout the day. I laminated the whole thing as well as each individual chore card. You could skip this and save money, but you know they won't last as long! Lamination is really not that pricey considering how awesome it makes your final product.
2. There is a card for each chore. Mine are 3x5, or index cards work nicely.
You'll see that I have 8 Daily chores as well as a spot for some Saturday ones to do in addition. We skip Sundays. Please forgive that I have a few ghetto handwritten cards on there. Those are the new ones I scribbled out quickly last week. We had to switch out the ones that related to school and replace them with new stuff!
The back of the card has a sticky velcro dot (and a corresponding dot on the poster where it belongs. I have to say with the lamination these have stuck VERY WELL and never came off, not once.
One quick note: I don't need to tell you ideas for individual chores, but here are a few hints of things that I've liked:
- Nice that you can customize easy ones for the little kids and harder stuff for the older ones.
- I like to have one on there that we call the "Bonus Buck" which is basically a "Mom's Choice." They have to come to me and ask for something they can help with. I can make it different every day.
- I also have cards related to good behavior, since we still need work with that. But be careful with abstract things. They usually do better with something that can easily be visualized as DONE. (For example: "No timeouts" instead of "Good Behavior")
- You might want to make a whole bunch of extra chore cards and switch them out once in a while so it doesn't get boring. This is better for the older kids.
3. When a chore is completed, the child places it in the "DONE" pocket.
We used strips of foam board and some super crazy glue to make the pocket stick out well enough from the poster to hold all the cards. It isn't terribly pretty from the side view, but it works. Just be sure to leave plenty of room in that pocket!
Did you notice that each card has a number at the lower right corner? This is the value of each chore. At the end of the day, I can take everything out of the "Done" pocket, and count up the total #'s from all the cards. This is what they have earned for the day! Don't forget to set the cards back out for tomorrow.
4. The child earns "Family Bucks" for completed chores.
Jason designed these cute little "Family Bucks" that we simply copied off on green paper. They have another pocket on the posterboard where they can be stored (made just like the DONE pocket.) Once they have earned some bucks, then the kids can spend them on things like TV, computer, friends over, etc. The key is: Anything you want to control or limit, charge them Bucks for it. Anything that you want to encourage or don't care how much they do it (reading, playing outside, etc.) then make it FREE! You can set your own prices for these privileges based how much your child is earning.
My favorite part of this system is that anytime throughout the day I can bribe with the chance to earn more Bucks or threaten to take Bucks away. (Imagine you're at a doctor's office: If everyone sits still and quiet during the appointment you will earn an extra buck today! Or at the grocery store: Since you just ran away from me, I'm taking away a buck when we get home.) It is so wonderful to have that leverage!!! Once they realize how valuable those Bucks are, the behavior straightens right up! Or one would hope...
5. The best part: Family Store!
Once a week (if we're good about remembering Family Home Evening) we bring out the Family Store. This is a basket I have filled with all sorts of cheap goodies. Sometimes candy, dollar store toys, notepads, whatever they might like. We let Dad be the storekeeper and set the prices for each item. The kids get a chance to go grab their Bucks out of the poster's $ pocket and spend a little money in the Family Store. Trust me, they absolutely LOVE this!!!
I have found this a great way to teach the lessons of saving versus spending. After the first few times, they really hesitate to blow all their money on a toy if it means they won't get any TV the next day. I have even seen one child give another a few bucks because he didn't have enough to buy something he really wanted. (So sweet!)
One last note: My brother's family used their version of "Family Bucks" to save up for a big vacation they had coming. Once the trip was near, the kids were able to exchange their "Family Bucks" into REAL MONEY to spend at Disneyland! (They had a 10:1 exchange rate -- 10 Family Bucks saved earned them 1 real dollar.) Loved this! MUCH better than a real allowance for the younger ages. And just sit back and watch how carefully they spend that real money, knowing how long and hard they worked for it!
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Since I started up the chore charts again this summer, we have had WAY LESS television blaring, less video games, less fighting, whining and complaining and MORE playing board games together, cleaning up our own messes, music practice, reading books, help for mom, practicing flash cards (Boo!!! Math in the summer! What a meanie I am.... but we need it.) I hope we can keep it up!
5 comments:
Fantastic! We've implemented a system as well . . . finally. The kids have chore necklaces (I got the idea from Julie B.). Each necklace is a lanyard with laminated chore cards attached. The first thing the kids do when they get up is put on their necklaces. They have until 10 am to do their chores (make your bed, put your dirty laundry away, empty wastebaskets, clean the bathrooom, clean the litter boxes, brush your teeth, practice piano, etc.). They earn one "chip/token" each day if they:
1. Do their chores on time (by 10 am)
2. Do their chores well (no sloppies!)
3. Do their chores with a good attitude.
After they earn 5 chips, they get to go to the award box (kinda like yours!).
But, I really like your idea of having them trade their chips in for some other type rewards - like extra t.v. time.
If anything, having a chore chart system has really helped me out. I feel like a lot more is getting done around the house and the kids are more conscious about cleaning up after themselves. Not only that, but if I see the kids hard at work doing their chores I'm much more inclined to join in (because how awful would I be to just sit back and watch tv while they're all going to town doing their chores!?)
Thank you for the wonderful ideas!
Parents who are proactive in general are awesome. Parents who are proactive about math in the Summer are my FAVORITE!!!!! :)
love this- I may have to implement something like this. thanks for posting all of it. gets my wheels spinning.
I love this whole entire idea. Please make me one! Ok, just show me how it's done. I have been looking for lots of ideas but wanted something that had plenty of visuals for the kids. I'm coming over to check it out.
I've been wanting to make a NICE chore chart (as opposed to my sloppy handwritten graphs with stickers) like yours forever. I've finally got everything to make it. I have seen several chore charts but I like yours the most. Can I ask, where did you get such a large posterboard laminated? Staples? Office Max? And have you ever given allowance to your boys? that's what I was planning on doing so they learn the importance of money, but I'm curious to see if you have done that before and how well it worked out for your boys.
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