For quite awhile I have been wanting the girls to take a little more responsibility in day to day duties such as keeping their room clean, setting and clearing off the table, picking up after themselves...
Don't get me wrong. Megan and Lucy will do those things. It may just take constant reminders and a little nagging; something that no one really enjoys.
We implemented a Chore Chart at our house three weeks ago and it seems to be working pretty well. I wanted to wait awhile to post this because I know (from my teaching days) how new incentives have a "honeymoon" period and then quickly wear off. I think our chore chart is here to stay for awhile.
Here's how it works: Lucy and Megan each have four daily chores that they keep for the week. Our marker board on the fridge lists the chores and has little magnet stickers they can put next to the chore to show its completion.
Nothing new I know, but here is how I tweaked it a bit to work better for us. I then took pictures of what the girls' "clean bedroom" or "organized shoe corner" looks looks like since kids quickly tend to forget. Each chore now visible reference that they can refer to. The pictures are posted next to the chore chart.
On Saturdays, they each get $3 if they did everything all week. The money is completely theirs and can be used for what they want. We do encourage them to use some for church offering and to save for our upcoming vacation. Lucy and Megan then switch jobs for the following week to keep things kind of fresh.
Is this perfect? No, I am sure it isn't. I am still on the fence about kids getting paid for household responsibilities, but I am in favor of allowance for kids to buy what they want. This is working for us right now. The house is more picked up and I have removed myself from being the "reminder."
Heck, the girls even wanted to go to in an indoor play place over winter break, happily carried their own purses and readily paid their own admission. There is definitely some responsibility in that.
Click here and here to read about our other small steps we have been taking to make family life a bit easier at our house.
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