Well, I finally seem to have found something that works... The chores themselves have stayed pretty much the same, and the penny jars are still in place, but trial and error has given way to the latest incarnation of our family's chore chart:
...I got the idea
here...
This one was a crazy amount of work (which has made me more likely to enforce it, given the amount of effort that went into making it). Sawing the wood... sizing, tracing and painting the lettering... painting the hooks... designing, printing, stickering, "laminating" and outlining the tags... etc. Yeah, LOTS of work.
So, here's how it works... each child has two hooks -one for chores that they need to do, and one for the chores they've already done. The tags have a chore and a corresponding picture on the front and stickers representing the value of the chore; one sticker = one cent (for now... doing it this way should make it easy to give the kids "raises" in the future). Some tags are outlined in each of the
kids colors, which makes it easy for me to pick out whose tags are whose, while others stayed white so I can hand them out to anybody. When they've finished a chore, they move it down. Simple concept. The extra hooks on either end are for any extra chores that I'd like done, but don't expect to be done... it gives them a chance to earn a little more if they want to. At the end of the day (or the next day), while I set up the next day's chores, I look at count up the stickers they've earned and pay each child accordingly (payments go into their penny jars).
Here's a list of their chores (and how many stickers they have on the back)...
These are the ones that each of the kids have and are expected to do every day:
- pick up your bedroom (1)
- pick up your stuff (throughout the rest of the house) (1)
- make your bed (1)
- put your laundry down the laundry chute (0)
Each of the kids have these, but they're not necessarily daily chores for them:
- load dishwasher (2)
- empty dishwasher (2)
- wash/dry laundry (2)
- sort laundry (2)
- fold/put away laundry (2)
This one is for Moo:
These are the ones they take turns doing:
- take out garbage (2)
- take out both bathroom garbages (2)
- take out recycling (2)
- sweep kitchen (2)
- sweep living room/dining room (2)
- sweep O's room (2)
- sweep bathroom/hallway (2)
- sweep girls' room (2)
- sweep kitchen (2)
- swiffer living room/dining room (2)
- swiffer bathroom/hallway (2)
- swiffer girls' room (2)
- swiffer kitchen (2)
- swiffer O's room (2)
- feed Fluffy morning (1)
- water fluffy morning (1)
- feed fluffy evening (1)
- water fluffy evening (1)
- litter box (3)
- scrub toilet (2)
- scrub tub/shower (3)
- wipe bathroom (2)
- wipe light switches/doorknobs (1)
- wipe dining table/benches (2)
- set table for dinner (2)
- clear/wipe both living room tables (2)
- dust living room (2)
- dust dining room (2)
- dust O's room (2)
- dust girls' room (2)
- straighten couches (1)
- fold/put away laundry that isn't yours (3)
- help with organizing (2)
I know it's a big, long list but they generally don't have more than one or two chores on top of their daily stuff. We've been doing this for a couple of months and it's really been working well.
In addition to this, I've introduced another reward system for big jobs that they don't complain about, jobs outside of the house (like helping Kitty Gramma clean up around her house or emptying Miss Nikki's dishwasher)... but I'll post about that another day (I think this one is wordy enough already).
What kind of system works in your house?
