Chore List

I would say a chore chart is a good idea. You can pay them too but maybe not in money but family time or mom time. It could be a movie night or after so many weeks they can have something that they have been asking for. It teaches them that hard work pays off. It teaches them responsibility.

There are a couple of really good web sites that helped me in choosing what chores I felt that my 3 and 5 year old boys could help with. The key is making it fun so that it is not such a chore. Every Thursday for example we have a garbage race... Friday is garbage pick up day so we race around the house each taking a garbage to bring to the kitchen empty and then get back to it's place the boys love it. Check out http://www.successfulfamilychores.com/
it's a helpful web site that gives parents ideas for what chores are appropriate for their age and how to stay consistant.
You are doing the right thing by starting now!
L.

Hi
I bought a chart that has pictures symbols from familytools.com? It works great it was $50 but i have used it for over 3 years now -- it also has blanks colors and my children get $1.00 after 5 green points they get a green point for going above and beyond. Ex. helping a sibiling, an extra chore, showing love to others. Liz S.

I have three children left at home: 13, 11, and 9. Since we don't watch tv during the week, especially during the school year, they earn tv time, computer time(except that needed for school work), and video game time by doing chores. For such things as emptying dishwasher, folding clothe, putting up dirty dishes and laundry, or whatever other chores you chose, they receive a ticket which is good for 10 minutes of whatever activity they choose. For bigger jobs or ones that take longer such as cleaning their room, they can earn more tickets. By the time the weekend comes they have the chance to watch a movie or tv show. Sometimes I will give them a freebie. I have them turn in their tickets for their choices and start over each week. I also tell them that 4 people can do in 15 minutes what it would take me an hour to do, so if we all chip in, it opens up more free time with mom. If your child needs motivation to practice an instument, read, do flashcards, or things like that a chance to earn an extra ticket for an activity can also help.

Have you ever heard of the Flylady (www.flylady.com) it's a program designed to help get your house under control. Well, they have a program for kids called the house fairy(www.housefairy.org). I haven't personaly tried it since my boys are still to young, but I have read great testimonials. Might be worth looking at.

I bought a white erase board and I hang it on the frige. I put magnets with the 'chore/job' to do. The top part of the board is the 'to do' when done they move that magnet to the bottom "done section'.

At my house we have chores that we are expected to do because we live as a family unit and work together. Then I have the chore/job board that they get paid at the end of the week if they did there jobs. Yes, I do not get paid in my home to do the laundry but if I went to someone else's home I would get paid to do the laundry type of thing. We give part of the earings 'to charity' save part for college and have some left for spending. This way at a young age we can instill in them the good money habits.

I wish you luck finding the ideas that work in your home.

I think you'll have a basically easy time getting your kids to help, just based on their ages. (The 3 year old will probably be easiest and they can help out a lot too! You just need a little extra patience.)

I just wanted to give you one tip on what NOT to do (taken from the experience of my own mom). Don't do what my mom did and say "Would someone like to help me do the dishes?" First of all, "someone" is really "no-one" and nobody "would like" to help. We would all rather continue playing. So, be specific if you need help. Call a child by name.

Good luck!

Hi S.,

It is a gift to teach your children that they CAN do chores [check out How Much is Enough? by Jean Illsley Clarke] They will learn to be independent and happier with their accomplishments.

Decide on the list together and each child can do at least one task each day. I'd suggest something that affects the whole family AND one thing for themselves. for instance: sweep floor and make bed. Best wishes to you! I'm amazed at your multiple skill set at work. You're a good role model for being capable and caring.

K. C.

I always felt like you did while my kids were growing up. You help around the house because you are part of the family and we as a family clean house without pay. If I had it to do over, I would have given them an allowance for the main reason of learning to save for things they want, how to manage money, how to put away money in a long term savings account. My kids grew up not knowing how to manage money at all. I figured they would know because I would tell them how important savings is and how it is nice to have the bills paid up and all. It wasn't enough though, they need to know that when you get a "paycheck" you should first put aside so much for long term savings or emergancies, put away for items you need, taxes and such and spend only part of what is left for what you want. Maybe if I would have showed them this their credit would be better and we wouldn't have had to bail them out when they blew their paychecks without being able to account for where it went. Teach them budgeting while they are young because when they are teens, they won't listen... they know more then you do.

A couple years ago I had the same issue. I decided to try a reward chart, yet I couldn't find one like what I had in mind, so I ended up making my own. I went to the scrapbooking store and bought fun paper for my girl (Dora themed), and for my boy (Batman themed) I then taped them together with matching stickers, and drew out little circle spots for the spaces for reward stickers to go.

I left two large spots open, in one spot I write what they can earn reward stickers for, in the other spot I write what they can get then taken away for. I then got it laminated so that I can use it over and over again.

The way I did it was to have 4 sections of 25. Every time they finished a section, they got a small prize or reward. When they finished all 4 sections (total of 100) they got a larger prize (going to chuck e cheese, money to buy a toy etc...).

The kids love to do the charts and ask to do them. I put everything up there from chores, to teeth brushing, staying dry at night, working things out with their sibling etc... anything they need to work on at the moment. And they would get stickers taken away for mostly behavioral things, or things they weren't doing that they were expected to like if their room wasn't clean at bedtime.

If you get it laminated, and you don't write their expectations on the chart before hand, you can use a dry erase marker to write on the chart and then add or remove things as you need to. And the stickers of course pull right off of it when you need to remove them or start over.

Just a thought, something that has worked for us. Hopefully you will find someting that works great for you too!!

Check out www.daveramsey.com and look at the Financial Peace Junior product. We have used this since my daughter was 3 years old. They do not get paid for regular things that they are responsible for, i.e. getting your dishes to the sink, cleaning their rooms. But they do get paid (you set the price - when my daughter was 3, we did 5 cents per chore - now she is 6 and we do 50 cents) You can start with little things like cleaning a bathroom mirror or counter - supervised at first, so you can let them know how you do it.
It is such a blessing when your children start to help out - and they might want to do more chores to earn more money! It is worth it to pay them for the time and stress it saves you! God Bless

hey S. , a chore list is a great idea, they dont even need to have stuff for it, like you said, why get paid for something you should be doing, but as far as little children go, yeah thats great, rewards are always nice, but soon you find them doing the job really fast so they can get the reward, kinda defeats the system, i still have a chore list up for my kids and they are older, but i never had any rewards posted on it, they get rewards cause mom now has more time to take them to the park, or go to mcdonalds, or just play with them cause now all the time is not spent doing chores by your self, however make your rewards = the chores, just enjoy life, and your kids, no matter how you do it, chores are a very good thing for kids, they feel better about themselves and the world around them when they can be of use, etc, enjoy D. s

Setting up a chore chart is very useful. In the past I've used a grease board and would change the chores from time to time. The way that I would set up the rewards would be as follows, the more x's you had the bigger the toy you'd get (I set a limit of $10.00 other wise they'd go after a game system). When the kids were younger, this worked great because they'd all see that so n' so got a great toy from Wal-Mart and all I got was a $1.00 toy from the discount store. This worked well up until a couple of years ago when they all became teens. Now, if they don't do their jobs, they don't get an allowence or if I have to do their job, I dock a certain amount from said allowence. Now my youngest has come up with a unique way of earning a new PS2. He will work for a certain number of weeks, doing extra chores so he can get said game system. I figure, he's about half way there and should be able to redeem on it around the end of next month.

We just started a similar thing in our house. We created a chore chart for each kid (ages 6 & 4), and they put an X on the chart each time they do any of the chores listed. At the end of the week, they get 10 cents for each X. So far it seems okay, but I would like them to feel they are responsible for the chores and can't just do them when they feel like it. So someone at work told me about something her friend did. They set an allowance for a certain amount, and their child had to do a certain list of chores each week to earn their allowance. For every chore they didn't do each week, money was subtracted from the allowance. I think we will be switching to this option soon, as I think I like it better.
Good luck!

I agree - you don't have to pay your kids to do their regular chores. I would set up a chart of what is expected and then you can make a list of some "extras" that they can also do if they want to earn a little something. Things outside of the ordinary, or over and above could be rewarded - BUT ONLY if the regular expecations are taken care of first.

Or, do a penalty system for those things that aren't completed - this would work if you were alredy doing allowance or something - you could take away points or amounts for chores not completed.

Good luck!

Hi S.
I made my chore chart on my computer using word prcessor they have some very nice templates. I would reward the kids with things they like to do anyway at our house you earn computer time, T.V. time playing with friends and if they complete all of there chores for two weeks in a row then they get to pick something fun to do with mom and dad. This is what works in our house hope it will help you some Good Luck :)T.

hold a family meeting and ask for each of your childrens input on how the problem can be solved. Have them pick chores and give them choices of rewards and explain that some things are just expected of them because they are part of the family and they will not get rewarded for it.

I saw a supernanny episode where they set up a system for the kids to help with the chores... I don't remember it exactly, so this could be totally different..

First I would set the kids down and 'brainstorm' with them about what needs done daily/weekly around the house. This gets them into the mind-set that they helped pick out what needs done so it doesnt seem like you're forcing them as much.. Make the brainstorming fun, when they can't think of anything, suggest stuff- "Do we stuff all the towels in the closet? No? Well, maybe we should put folding laundry on the list? What do you think?" etc.

Split that list into two parts: things each child has to do daily no matter what, and community stuff that needs done around the house that any one of you can do.

Then write the community chores on different fun paper and cut out. Have the kids help you every step of the way, writing, cutting, decorating, whatever. Get the chores laminated and stick velcro strips on the back. Place in a special container.

Use a scrapbook page for each child and put their name on top. Under the names write their specific daily/weekly chores and check mark boxes. Lamanate these pages for strength. Put the opposing velcro tabs on the lower parts of the sheets so the kids can velcro their community chores, making sure to leave room for the random sizes of the chore papers.

Then weekly, or daily have the kids draw for their chores!
IE- each child draws till there are no chores left in the special container and puts those chores on their sheet. suzy has to do dishes this week, tommy vaccuums. You can even make a sheet for yourself to visually show them how much work you do too so it feels like you're all in it together.

As for rewards, i dunno. Just keep it fun and keep that sense of community. :) Good Luck! Hope this helps even a little!

I agree with you that I don't think kids should need to be paid to help out around the house but on the other hand, they do not care that things are not picked up, we do. I do pay mine so they have some motivation to help. I made up a chart of common chores they are asked to do. When they do it, they get to put a check on the chart. Some chores are worth 1 point, others 2 or 3 points. About every 2 weeks we add up their check marks and they get their allowance. I pay them 25 cents per check, which is really cheap I know. But they are young and appreciate that they are making some money and do not need $10 or $20 a week. And it is well worth the $20 I pay them to not do it all myself.

When I pay them, they get to put half in their wallet to spend as they wish and half goes in their piggy bank. I hope they are learning 2 lessons from this.....everything is not free, they need to work for what they want and the importance of saving. By the time they reach high school, they will likely have enough to buy a small car.

Doing it this way also helps with the fairness issue. Everything does not have to be equal because they will get paid based on what they have done.

Good luck!

Hi S.,

My children receive an allowance as just that: an allowance. It is not payment for chores, as we all work together because we live together and it needs to get done. Work is not a punishment. I also figure that at some point, my kids may have jobs and I may not want to offer them what they think completing jobs at home are worth. We teach money management, too, helping them decide what to save and what can be spent. As for a chore chart, I really like the PEGS system (Parental Encouragement and Guidance System)(www.familyinnovation.com - I don't remember if it is innovation or innovations - sorry!). It has allowed my kids to take intiaive in showing when jobs are done without me asking. It can be used to reiniforce other behavior goals as well, which I love. It also has the capacity to grow and change daily and is good for children of all ages. Good luck!

My friend has boys 8,10 &12 and she made a calendar for each boy, stating their specific chores on each day (since they rotate the chores among the boys) She made the calendar pages on the computer and then bound them together so they hang on the bedroom doors of the boys' rooms. THey do monthly rewards. Each boy has maybe one or two chores a day to take care of and at the end of the month whoever did ALL chores daily gets a reward. So far the 10 year old has been tho one to get the rewards and its been something thats cost between $5 and $10. (I do know that the boys get to pick their reward, just not sure what the choices have been)

Hi S.,
I used to have a fun chart that I used for my daughter (I bought it somewhere, but you could make one). It had the list of chores on one side and the days of the week on the other.

There were fun velcro pictures (could be stickers in your case) that she got to put on a day (by her name) when she completed a chore.

Let them have fun with it!
M.

i used several diff approaches as my boys grew. one they really liked was the tree. i made a tree and then seperate leaves. each leaf had a chore on it. i lamenated it all to last.

every night all the leaves fell off the tree and the goal was to get the tree full again.

if the tree was full there was a treat. didnt have to be candy, but something special. maybe stay up late. get to pick a movie to watch on tv.

the leaves didnt have specific people who did the chore it would just say- clean chris' room. clean moms & dads room. do laundry. etc. that way it was a family goal to get it accomplished. even though each person was really in charge of their own room.

everyone got the "reward". sometimes it was just extra time with mom and dad cuz all our work was done too so we had more time for bedtime stories- catch in the back yard, walk to park.

believe it or not- kids like to imitate what you do. it is very important for them to know how needed they are in the family unit. if a child thinks the family can do without them they loose alot of self worth.

good luck and have fun. even ask THEM what kind of "chore chart" they think is good.