Seeking Advice on How to Implement Chore Chart

I have 3 kids all about the same age. We had a hard time working the chores. I came up with chore sticks. We write the chore on the front and then on the back I have tips to go with teh chore. We pull sticks every day. We also added fun stuff in there. The fun stuff is things like staying up an extra 30 minutes, a sonic drink, a $1 movie, or getting to pick the movie. The kids love it. When I draw the sticks I pick just teh chores that need to be done and the fun stuff I am willing to allow that day. The kids don't argue anymore. It is strictly luck of the draw.

I have a 5 year old who was always asking for a toy! So I decided to do a cart where he could earn stickers and put them towards a reward. He has his room and a toy room at the end of each night they both have to be clean and he earns a sticker at the end of the night. then I put a chart up showing 7 stickers = small toy under $5, 14 stickers = toy under $10, 30 stickers toy under $20. I bought the chart and stickers at walmart, and they have a place you can write down the chores. Its working well for us. Good Luck!

We homeschool and at the convention in Houston I saw two programs I thought were neat. Their websites are www.accountablekids.com and www.ididmychores.net

I wanted to pass on another couple of ideas~

The marble system - Get empty/clean 2 liter bottles for each child. Write on them reward lines. As a chore is finished they "earn" a marble. The first reward line might be ice cream with Mom or a favorite game, etc. Further up the top of the bottle might be a movie or date night with Dad or whatever you deem rewarding. Anyway, as they complete chores the bottle is filled with marbles. For poor behavior or infractions they have to give you a marble back. This system is visual and doesn't tie monetary gain to tasks they should be doing but rewards after lots of good behavior/habits. A friend of mine uses this system and LOVES it.

Secondly, in our house, we have the 15 minute pick up. Once or twice a week we will set the timer and spend 15 minutes in each room. Everyone helps in each room. After things are picked up/cleaned we all play a game or I remind them if we work together as a team we get done faster. I don't like the "this isn't my responsibility" that comes with if it's not on my chore chart I don't have to help. We all live in the same house, making messes and living together, therefore we clean together. If my daughter (9) wants to earn money, I give her things to do that are not the general house cleaning stuff. I always make sure I provide a way for them to earn money for stuff they deem important, but I also teach them about saving the money they have.

I wish you well in your endeavors and applaud you for raising responsible children. It's not hard to look around and see how important that is! :)

Blessings!
L.

I had a hard time keeping up with a paper chart, reprinting it when it was done, etc. I had a lot of wooden craft pieces my sister-in-law gave me. I wrote on the chore on the piece and attached a magnet to it. Now their chores are on the metal door leading to the garage. They move each piece as the chore is done. I can easily see if they did it or not.

They each have only a few chores a day, but it makes a huge difference in the amount of work I have. I have three kids that do this, then my fourth, my three year old, is only responsible for taking his non breakable dishes and picking up his toys.

I hope you find something that works for you. We have tried many different things over the years. This one has been my favorite.

We use www.handipoints.com. It works wonderfully. There is a reward system. It is not necessarily financial. Some of the rewards my kids like best are time. (Date with Mom and Dad, Playstation time, etc.)
Before I found handipoints, we had a grid. Days of the weeks across the top. List of chores down the left side. Child's name in the grid when it was their turn. Took me some time to figure it out.
Whichever system you choose, expect it to take at least two weeks to implement. It takes about two weeks to establish a habit.

Something we did with our "star chart" (tied to chores and behaviors) was I started having the kids check off what they had done - they got one check if we had to tell them to do it, but 2 checks if they did it without being told. We paid them (minimally!) for each check earned, so this doubled their money - they found that to be a great incentive! The hardest part is me keeping up with the chart. They actually ask for it, and I am the one lagging!

This is what how chores are handled for my 5-1/2 yr. old son. I got an eraseable chart from Dollar Tree. It has days of the week across the top. Down the side I wrote his chores. Some chores, such as making his bed, brushing his teeth and picking up after himself are considered the chores he's responsible for just because he is a member of the family. So I give him a check for doing it and no pay. If he doesn't do them consistently, he loses a privelege. He has other chores he gets paid for daily, like setting the table and putting up the dishes ( he does the silverware only at this age). He also gets paid for cleaning out the litter box (with a little help) 2 or 3 times a week and for bringing the recylcle bin back up to the house on Fridays after recycling pickup. He gets paid .20 per chore. If he doesn't do his job, or does it half-way, etc. he doesn't get paid. We add it up each week and pay him. We also talk about how he could earn more money and what Non-pay chores he needs to improve upon for the following week. This system has been in place for about a year now. It has worked out well to help him learn responsibility for helping out and to learn that you also have to work to be able buy the things you want. He now has the option to ask for other chores to earn extra money. I also like this system because it is simple and doesn't take a lot of time and effort to complete.

When I was little, there were 6 of us. Mom had a chart on the refrigerator of our chores (they were age appropriate). We were free to do our chores anytime during the week, but on Saturday morning, there was no t.v. until everyone's chores were done. We weren't allowed outside or to play or read, or anything until all chores were done. Peer pressure works wonders!!! We also learned about procrastination. If we all did the chores during the week, we didn't miss Saturday morning cartoons.

D. Kimbriel
Grandma to 2 beautiful boys

Hi B., My husband and i used the Love and Logic Method of implementing the chore system years ago and it has been very effective for us. I made a HUGE list of everything it took to keep our house going and let everyone pick their own chores. I ended up with grocery shopping, although my oldest goes to CostCo with me once a month as a chore and they all help bring in, and all the other big chores, but I had them all on the list. We also give our kiddos a chance every few months to trade or exchange a chore for a new one. I typed them all out per day and laminated them. When we all get home from school, the boys (7 and 12) go right to doing their chores. If they don't do something I do it for them and then they have to pay me and if they have on tv or video games before chores are finished they loose that privelege for a week. There are CDs and books that we listened to for help on all this. Good luck!

I suggest making an actual chart that you can hang up somewhere. As they complete a chore, they can check it off or put a sticker in the square. It is a concrete way for them to see their responsibilities. It is also easy for you to glance at while walking past and see very quickly who is getting stuff done. Ours is sort of tied to allowance. If she fails to do her chore and I have to do it for her, she must pay me for my time. We keep track on the fridge. We also deduct allowance for bad behavior, such as hitting her sister or sassing me and dad. So yesterday, she got 5.25 instead of her 6.00. She puts half in savings and blows the rest. There are so many ways of doing this- just find a system that works for your family and stick with it- kids need consistency more than anything.

I found a great tool online called Handipoints (handipoints.com). My kids are a bit younger, but I still create the chore charts and print them out.

Here's a blurb from the Handipoints site:

In addition to powerful parenting tools for creating chore charts and allowances, Handipoints features HandiLand, a safe virtual world where kids adopt their own cartoon cat, play games and watch movies. Free members can upgrade to the Cool Cats Club to unlock special clothes, furniture, and games. Great for kids from four to twelve, Handipoints helps teach kids how to work and save for fun virtual rewards.

Good luck!

When I was a kid my mom made a list of chores that we could complete, dishing it out equally, and then rotating every week. She just kept it in a excel type format. We had everyday chores and then special weekend chores. Because you have 3 kids it will work great as each one gets a two week break from cleaning the bathroom, doing the dishes, or taking out the trash. We got a monthly allowence of 5$ and then got paid extra to mow the lawn, wash the car, etc. This worked great for years on us. Just try different techniques but what you don't want is one child doing the same chore over and over again.

With my 8 year old, she has to do her homework, feed the dog, make sure that her room is clean, and have a good attitude, and if she completes all 4, she gets one hour of computer time a day. For each task not completed, she gets 15 minutes taken off. If she has an attitude twice, that's half of her time gone.

B.,

I have never had much success with an actual chart that you have check off items when done. I have 4 girls ages, 14, 12, 10, 6 and a few years ago, I set up a schedule that was easy to remember. I assign responsibilities according to ages...Each child is responsible for maintaining their own room, beds made each a.m. neatly, dirty clothes/room picked up each p.m. before climbing into bed. they know that if this is not done the majority of the time (of course there are always those a.m.'s you sleep late) their weekend activities will be limited. Each child is responsible for swiffering furniture in bedroom, vacuuming and wiping down bathroom vanity every other week. Dish duty is done by week. My oldest is responsible for dishes the 1st week of the month, 2nd oldest is responsible the 2nd week and so on. The off week either the adults do it or I ask randomly one of the girls. This system has helped tremendously with the argument of I did it last time. On nights that we are not running around to different activities, one child helps get dinner to the table, one helps clean up after dinner, one will sweep kitchen at the end of the day etc. Everything stays the same, therefore there is not question to who is responsible for that particular responsibility. Laundry, only done on Mondays/Fridays...each child is responsible for getting their laundry to laundry room each of these a.m. If the laundry isn't there it doesn't get done. They are reminded the night before and at the time I wake them. I have purchased small baskets at Walmart and have put each of their names on them...when laundry is folded I place in basket and it is there responsibility to get it and put it away. Miscellaneous responsiblities...cleaning out car, help with getting trash collected from different rooms (my youngest does this, designate a particular day so they know this happens this day), feeding pets (great for younger child), matching socks, clean cubbies out each Friday.

We do not pay an allowance, these are things that are expected of them being part of the family. We do give them $, within reason, when they want to go to movies etc. Our oldest is alloted $20.00 a weekend, next one $10.00 a weekend, our two youngest it is on a as needed basis. They do have opportunities to earn $ if they do other things around the house, help with yard work, wash cars, clean windows etc. But the every day chores they are not compensated for.

I found it was easiest to get everything down on paper. Determine which items I was particular about and I do those myself...make your expectactions clear and give them actual deadlines on when items need to be done, i.e. swiffering/vacuuming have to be done before the end of the day of Friday, this has to be done before they do other things on the weekends. Remember it takes time for something to become a habit. Hopefully this helps, good luck...

I was going to suggest accountable kids also. We use that with my five year old and it works well.

If your kids like computer stuff, there's also one called chore wars where you make a list of things that need to be done, they look on the computer program to get a job, and then it assigns them experience points and such for doing the work. Silly but fun.

oldest daughter: washing/drying/folding clothes ie laundry duty, cleaning the laundry room.

second daughter: wash/dry/put away dishes, clean kitchen

third daughter: empty/clean interior garbage cans/take care of pets

all maintain their own bedrooms

then alternate.

good luck.

I have a chore wheel, with each kid having a different number of chores based on his age. Yours are so close together that you probably want to divide the chores equally. We have 10 chores, and my kids have 4, 3, 2, and 1 chore (9 year old has 4; 2 year old has 1). I used Power Point or Excel to make two 10-piece pie charts; one with the chores and one with their names in however many slices they have chores. The two charts are held together with a brad. I used contiguous slices for each kid so that they will do the same chore 4 days in a row if they have 4 chores, 3 days if they have 3, etc. but you could also separate them. I alternate hard and easy chores on the chart so they are not overwhelmed. In the afternoon, we have "chore wheel time" when the chores that are not time-specific are done. The kids love this and are actually pretty good about doing their chores.

For thier individual chores such as making their beds, I have a chart on their doors with different criteria I check every day (closet neat, shoes put away, towels hung up, bed made, etc.) and they get 'X's in the appropriate box if it doesn't pass inspection. We accumulate days with no 'X's for a small prize. So for that stuff, the emphasis isn't on whether they have done their chores, but whether their rooms are neat and presentable.

We have a wipeable chore chart with a grease marker (we got it at Office Depot or Mardels I believe). Some of the chores are daily chores; some are weekly chores. The weekly chores we do on Saturday.
On Monday night, we have family home evening and change the chores so everyone rotates the chores. For room cleaning, since the girls play in each other's rooms, we do a 15 minute rotation in each room and there might be a reward for those who do the best. (A lot of the time, they "tie".)

Weekly chores include sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms, mopping, etc. Daily chores include feeding pets, helping with laundry. Doing the dishes (unloading the dishwasher) is the only chore that does not change. Each girl has a at least 2 days (we also have 3 girls: 8, 7, 6 and a boy 4 who only has dishes one day).

We don't give out rewards; they are expected to help because they are part of the family. They really don't mind too much helping. The worst part is when they have to clean their rooms. Good luck

We started or chore chart by using DEAVER DOLLARS as payment (our last name is Deaver). I created the dollars on the computer then printed and laminated them very cheaply. We gave one dollar for each chore completed, they could earn 3 a day total. The dollars could be used for 15 minutes of tv, computer, or video games or they could be saved for bigger things. We required 5 for a trip to the park and 10 to have a friend stay the night. My friend also used the same method but with poker chips instead of the fake money.

Our kids are all old enough now that we don't use the reward system but I love the lessons it taught my children. They learned to save a little at a time to earn something big, to spend some wisely, and to work willingly without being hounded. They still do 3 chores a day after homework is completed but don't get "paid" anymore because they realize that it takes a whole family to mess up a house and a whole family to keep it looking neat and running smoothly. Besides that, they want the real cash now lol so we pay them for extra big jobs such as mowing, raking dog pen, or detailing our vehicles.

Hi B., my friend was asking the same question for her 7 yr old daughter. So I created a simple "responsibility" chart for her and can share it with you if you want to send me your email address.

Anyhow, it's a weekly chart with all her chores. As she completes the daily chores she puts a sticker in that box. At the end of the week, she either gets a quarter for every chore she completed or she can pick from the "treasure" box if ALL chores were completed (it's their choice). If she doesn't complete ALL chores for the week, then she'll only get a quarter for what she did complete. (this way they are being rewarded for their efforts)

You can get lots of inexpensive treasures such as lip gloss, dress-up jewelry, puzzles, coloring books, notepads, etc.

Hope this helps, good luck.

Handipoints.com! My kids got so excited about doing chores after using this free system!

I have a 7 and 5 year old and we started this chore chart at the beginning of the school year. I made a fabric pouch for each child and pinned to our bulletin board. My friend used cardstock and glue and let the kids decorate them and stick them on the fridge. I have cards with all our chores written on them (we used the back of our outdated business cards). Every day I pull the chores that need to be done that day. The kids alternate days of who gets to choose first. Then they each choose their chores until all the chores have been assigned and put them in their pouch. For the things they are expected to do everyday, I have a morning routine checklist (brush teeth, make bed, feed dog, etc.) I have to remind them everyday and help them do their chores. Friday is payday. Of course, chores don't have to be linked to money, but we wanted to teach them lessons on money (tithing, savings, spending, etc.) so this system works for us.

My daughter is not old enough for chores yet, but I have an idea. In girl scouts we use to have what we called a kapper chart. On a poster board put the chores you want done. Will say you listed them to the left. Across the top the days of the week. Rotate your childrens name thorugh so they dont do the sme chore everyday. Instead of money for this maybe your kids favorite meal or snack.

hi B.
i recall my parents implementing a chore chart that actually worked and last for years!! :) My mother made a grid with the chores across the top, the chores listed down the left hand side and our names(4 kids)in the coorospdonding boxes. i will do the same for my kids b/c it worked so well!
S.

HI B..
I have a "chore wheel" with chores for my 3 kids. I have them do chores every MWF. This works because they aren't always stuck with the same chore and they understand it's all fair. Also they have to have their room cleaned entirely before any cartoons on Saturday. It is good to do it once a week, and it isn't so much work that I"m lording over them constantly.

Good Luck.

I went up to the Dollar tree, got some poster board and made up charts for each child - with bullets for the activities I want to promote. Examples: Brush teeth, put away clean clothes, dirty clothes in hamper, bring in trash bins, sharing, being a good helper, clearing plates, homework, etc. I give a foil star stickers for each completed task, and when a row has been awarded to the end of the poster board - that child can pick a "date" - I will take him to a movie or to dinner someplace he has chosen - just himself. We try t make it interesting - and not let them get too carrid away on what they can do - maybe when they've completed an entire board, I can take him to Six flags or something - this helps me to taylor the reward to the individual, and both of my kids really work hard to get to have their own special "date." They even try to one up the other - so I just tell them that next time they can pick the same place or maybe they can think of what they want next.