My great friend Amber (fabulous name, huh?) has a question I'm hoping we can all help her with.
Any ideas out there? What works for you?
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Pulling their Weight
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10 comments:
My kids (like me) love lists. I have found that a chart gets old after a few days. If I make a new list every day, they go for it. They try to race each other to get jobs done so they can cross something off. I put mine on a chalk board.
Kristi, is there any intensive coupled with the list? Are they working towards a goal or do they earn an allowance if they finish the list?
Most of the time no incentive is needed. Just the thrill of crossing things off the list is usually enough to keep them going. Sometimes, when the list is long or full of chores they really dislike, I give them ice cream or something at the end. My kids are 4 and 5 and I don't give them an allowance.
I love the list idea! My girls love to help with different things so this is a good way to have things they do daily but switch up a couple of "fun" things. By fun i mean chores....
there are certain requirements i have of my children. they aren't "chores" and i do not pay them for it. i'm not sure if i believe in allowance. anyway. i firmly believe that there are things that must be done in order to maintain the home of the family. they are part of the family, and they are expected to help. when told. morning chores are maintaining the cleanliness of thier rooms, with my help. other jobs given to them include:
putting silverware away
dumping recycling
table setting/clearing
What I do is pretty simple. Before bed everyone in the house picks up EVERYTHING and puts it away. Once the house is picked up, the kids can have dessert. (Sometimes its just a piece of candy, or a small amount of ice cream). If they don't want to pick up then they go straight to bed. It only took one time of putting Tyson to bed at 6:30 for him to learn.
I agree that kids should be expected to help out because they are part of the family and everyone needs to work together to make it work. I would like to give my kids allowance at some point, though, so they can learn about money. Saving, sharing, donating, etc. Not sure when I will do that and if there will be strings attached. Haven't figured that out yet.
We just started an allowance. To earn it they have to do things that they are struggling with, hence, it changes all the time. Right now whining is at the top of the list. I try to have around ten things on their list. Each day that they accomplish the task all day long they get a sticker. At the end of the week if they got stickers each day for a task they get a dime, if they didn't they only get a penny a day for the days they did. This encourages them to try to do the things every day. Then at the end of a "perfect" week they get a dollar (Huge to them. They love going to the dollar store). Now we're teaching them to pay tithing, save, etc. It's been great. And, they're motivated to do the things they need to. We also will pay them for doing extra chores, like cleaning up messes Lyssie makes, doing more work than is on their chore chart, etc. It's working great so far.
I forgot to include the link for the charts my kids love
http://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com
I wish I knew how to make it a link on here. Sorry.
I love these ones because you can fill in what you want and they have popular cartoon and super hero characters.
Great ideas guys. Thanks. I currently make my girls set and clear the table, clean their rooms and put away the dishes. They "sweep" too, but I have to re-sweep after. I just go back and forth on the allowance thing. While I do want to teach them about earning/saving/donating, I want them to realize they have to contribute regardless of potential earning incentives. I think it is a fine line and I am not sure how to approach it. I guess I will fiddle with it and see what works.
My girls get $.25 a day as an allowance if they contribute to the household (1 chore without whining). If they do more chores, they get a quarter for each extra chore. They really like the quarters (even the 3 year old) because they like using the machines in the entrance of stores. We don't buy them treats or toys when we go shopping. If they want to buy something, they have to save up money. So, they are learning the value of money, even though the little ones don't keep track of it very well.
Because I forget to give them their allowance (I know, I'm pretty bad sometimes), I'm keeping a calendar page on the fridge to keep track. So now it can be a monthly allowance. I think I will ask them how much they need and keep the rest "in their accounts." (We act like a bank for our kids and manage a spreadsheet to keep track of their accounts.)
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