Hi everybody!
Wow! I can't believe how long it has been since I made a creation! School is kicking my butt! The good news is, however, that I am now a senior! I got accepted into the Secondary Education program at Dixie State University and I will be graduating with my bachelor's degree in less than a year! I am so dang excited! I can't wait to start creating things for my students and my classroom!
Currently I am in between semesters. After this most recent semester I realized one very real thing - I am NOT Wonder Woman! I tried very hard to keep a clean house, be a good mom and wife, and still be a straight A student. The only thing I succeeded at is the straight A's and most of the time maintained a clean house. Unfortunately, the mom and wife part took a back seat because all of my time was used up trying to accomplish the other two. I realized that something had to give. I had to let my husband and children help me. This past month I finally started allowing my kids to help with everyday chores and started teaching them how to do things the way I would do them, and even took a deep breath and allowed them to be done with a chore even if they didn't do it EXACTLY as I would. After a couple of times of having to correct little small things, I was finally able to let go and just enjoy being helped.
With summer coming up, I decided I need to get organized with the kids. I needed to make sure they continued to learn and help with the household chores, and I also needed to give them ideas of what they could do with their time other than having their brains fried by a screen. So I came up with the following chores. One set is for earning 2 hours of technology time. That's all they get! The chores associated with Technology Time are chores that I expect of them on a daily basis. These are chores that are their own personal responsibility and I refuse to pay them for! I know that once this actually gets put into play I will need to be prepared for a fight from my 12 year old daughter, who recently discovered that she like listening to audio books from her phone as opposed to just quietly reading - an activity she used to enjoy thoroughly. A fight will most definitely come from my 10 year old son, who will not want to do any of the chores just to be able to play a video game, and then when his 2 hours is up, I will get the typical "let me just finish this level" response. My 7 year old daughter I am not too concerned about when it comes to screens, she has never had a huge desire to view them constantly - but hey, might as well keep up that desire!
The second set of chores are ones in which I need help with personally. These are chores I am willing to pay my children for. Yes, the prices are probably pretty cheap compared to what other parents might pay but at the ages my children are at - there is no reason for them to be earning more than $5.00 a month each. My husband and I take care of the expenses for their needs, and for their wants - we teach them to practice patience. This means that they have to wait until their birthday or Christmas to get something they want. Most of the time they forget about a particular want or if they remember, then we know they really will care for that item that they get. So, without further ado, here is the new chore chart system I created!
Once my children have created the chore they have selected (the one's with the red asterisk next to them are ones that can only be completed once a week), then they will take a clothespin with their name on it and place it next to the completed chore. At the end of each day I will record down how much money I owe them, then at the end of each week I will pay them. It's that simple! This, however, is just for the chores they can earn money for, and I suspect it will be easier to get them to complete these chores. For the technology one, I have a feeling I will get much more of a fight....
The top five are chores they are EXPECTED to do every day, the rest are ways for them to earn time on a screen. Once they have completed these, they will also need to place a clothespin with their name on it next to the completed chore.
I bought these plastic free standing picture frames for about $1.50 at Walmart to display the tasks to be completed:
Then these small clothespins and these little "completed by" papers I created are hot-glued together to create these:
This really was very simple to create and very inexpensive, I think I spent less that $20! Now lets just hope I can stick to it! Because, for me, sometimes the battle is worse than just doing it myself!
Are you interested in having one for your family, but don't want to take the time to type all of this up for yourself? I will make one personalized just for you! Just click on the Paypal button below and make your purchase, after I received confirmation of purchase, I will email you within 24 hours for the details necessary to create your personalized Makin' Money Chore Chart and Technology Time templates! Thank you!
