Chore Charts

The kids (well, Gabe) have been begging me to make them a chore chart forever! I just haven't had the time to sit down and figure out one that works best for them. Gabe has been saving up money for what seems like years. He's very good about saving. The money or giftcards he gets from birthdays or Christmas gets put into his wallet and hardly EVER gets touched. Right now he's saving up for a new Nintendo 3DS. Ryan, on the other hand, is just like his mother. He spends it as soon as he gets it. He's also very good at losing his money. He likes to take the money in and out of his piggy bank and he tends to lose track of it. So that was something I needed to address when it came to paying them an allowance. I wanted them to be able to see the "fruits of their labor" without risking them losing their "fruits". I saw an idea on a blog called Tatertots and Jello (one of my faves) where they used play money to pay allowances and the kids could cash in their money at the end of the week or whenever they were ready to use it. I thought this was such an awesome idea! I printed some play money from this website onto green paper. And then I sat down with the kids and asked them what chores they thought they could do. They were very excited and probably a little too eager to do chores. They even wanted to clean my room for me! These are just some of the things that are on their lists:

• Clean Room
• Feed Pets
• Take Out Trash
• Clean Off Table
• 10 Minutes of Reading Time
• One Good Deed

After we came up with the chores I whipped something up in Photoshop and printed it out. I also attached an envelope to the bottom of the page and labeled it with each kids name. Then I laminated the whole thing so they could use dry erase markers to mark off their chore each day and I didn't have to worry about printing off a new chart every week. After it was laminated I cut a slit in the envelope for their money to go into. We also take money away or give extra money depending on their behavior. If their not acting the way they should be I take a dollar away. But if I catch them being extra good I'll give them a dollar. It seems to be working so far!

"But as for you, be strong and do not give up for your

work will be rewarded."

2 Chronicles 15:7