After a whole lot of picking up after the boys, constant reminders for them to do simple every day tasks like brushing their teeth, and a constantly trashed bedroom (read: Jackson!)... I decided it was time for them to take some responsibility! This family is a team & I just can't be everyone's maid anymore. Time for change!
Another issue we have around here is that (Eli especially) loves to watch TV & play the gameboy. He begs for a show constantly & will not budge from the couch (won't even visit the bathroom unless we pause it) until the show is over... where he then begins to beg for a second show. I think he would love to be a professional couch potato. Randy is convinced he will be some kind of game/media developer or something! ha! And if we give him the gameboy (which we rarely do), then he will go berzerk when we say it is time to put it away despite any warnings, timers, and promises we get from him beforehand.
Well, since I already use the TV as a form of discipline from time to time (I will take his TV time away from him as a punishment), I thought I could work this into the chore system. And Jackson has been starting to buck the homework everynight, so I worked that into it as well!
I had bookmarked this
blog post a while back that had a great .pdf of a chore chart that was a free download. I could even type in the kids individual chores before printing. I had been thinking of what chores I wanted the kids to be responsible for over several weeks before biting the bullet & working on a system for our house. I spent Friday evening at home, fixing these up. I printed them on regular computer paper & then mounted them onto cardstock before "laminating" them with clear contact paper.
I gave the boys each a different shade of green cardstock so they could tell whose was whose & even stamped a J and E on the backs in case they forgot (or Daddy was going over their rewards & needed to know). I also punched a hole in the top so we can hang them from hooks on the side of the fridge)
My father in law saves me his coffee tins (my coffee doesn't come in these great, classic tins!), so I put this one to work! The kids turn in their chore cards as they complete them, feeling a sense of accomplishment & keeping their motivation up.
What do they earn? Well, if they complete all their daily chores, they get a media coin and 10 cents. Remember those coins from VBS this past summer?? Well, Yep- I hung onto them & they are now coming in handy!
Media consists of 1 TV show or 30 minutes of computer (educational) / video games. They can also save & turn in 3 coins for a movie. We also added in 2 challenge chore cards as well as 2 "weekend only" chores.... I will get to that in a minute... I also printed this info onto paper & attached it to the tin so that there would be no confusion (or working one parent over the other) about what the actual rewards were! And it would keep us accountable.
They also turn in their media coins into the same tin when they are redeeming them. This way, it is all kept in one simple place. I like simplicity & no clutter!
Randy & I decided on these DAILY chores for the boys:
Mornings:
*Get dressed & brush your teeth *make your bedAfternoons:
*Complete homework (Jackson) *Unload dryer or dishwasher if needed (Eli)
*Feed Zack(Jackson) *Feed Lola (Eli)Bedtime:
*pick up all toys (before bed) from upstairs & downstairs (includes the playroom!!) *Straighten up your bedroom*Say prayersBUT, there's 2 bonus (Challenge) cards for each day: OBEDIENCE & GOOD ATTITUDE. (We have been struggling in these areas for awhile now, so I thought this would be good to add to the mix for a bonus!) Each kid can earn a second media coin & extra 10cents for
each day if BOTH cards are in the tin at the end of the day.
{I added a second layer of cream paper to the backs of these cards to set them apart in the bunch }
Now, onto the weekend chores.... The
weekend chores came about for 2 reasons: to hold me accountable on the bed linens & hopefully make the boys more aware of a "situation" that I am personally sick of cleaning up! These are the 2 weekend chores the boys are responsible for- they only have to do it once over the entire weekend:
*Strip their sheets from their beds *clean the bathrooms {I added a second layer of black to these cards to set them apart for weekend only..}
I know you are all thinking, "WHAT? The kids have to clean the bathrooms?" Ummm, yep. Boys are nasty human beings. Trust me. And I think the grossest thing I have to do as a mother is clean up the bathroom after 2 young boys. Let's just say that aim is not their forte, and I am hoping that this will make them more aware of that. I plan to get them each a pair of rubber cleaning gloves & their own spray bottles of cleaner too! Hopefully, they will get better at "keeping the seat clean" and this won't be so nasty to deal with after a few weekends. Either way, it needs to be done each weekend (probably more often than that, really!).
So the boys not only have to work for their daily "vege out" time, but they have the potential to earn 20cents a day and an extra 10cents sometime throughout the weekend. That adds up to $1.30 a week. Sounds cheap, i know. But we are cheap & they can take that buck to the dollar store & get a treat if they want. Or save it for something bigger. I also plan to have them take their own money out of their stash for their contribution in the church offering plate each Sunday. I am hoping this will be a good way to teach them to give back to the Lord as well.
Wish us luck that this goes off without a hitch & that the rewards are motivating enough to keep them responsible!
