Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Dollar-Palooza

Getting Peyton to do her chores every day is very frustrating. I often have to remind her several times to pick up her dishes, pick up her toys, brush her teeth.. and I am not a gal who likes to repeat herself. So while searching on Pinterest, I looked for "Chore Boards" to see what other enterprising moms out there have done to whip their children into shape. One option was particularly intriguing to me--I thought the magnet chore board with chore magnets would be an interactive way for Peyton to get involved and have fun marking off her chores. The Chore Chart was from Abbie's House on Etsy:

Abbie's House, purchase here

I wondered, though, if the magnets weren't too "young" for her. But at 7 years old and me still reminding her to pick up her dishes after she eats, something's gotta give.  I also wondered if she would really use the chore chart. So I thought I would invest in something a little cheaper to give the Chore Chart a test run.

Enter Delightful Order. They offered an instant editable PDF download (how's that for instant gratification) that had teal and chevron stripes on it. At $7, I was sold. Sure, I could have probably created something similar myself, but why recreate the wheel when I like it? Plus, I figured it would be the fastest way I could get Peyton using a Chore Chart, instead of waiting for shipping time. So I placed the order and roughly 10 minutes later, I was downloading the document. I put it on the fridge and told Peyton I wouldn't remind her anymore to do her chores.



Then we talked about what she would get if she does her chores every day. When I was growing up, I had to earn my allowance. We had little reference cards with various chores on them and we would have to do the chores every week to get our allowance. So I figured I would do the same thing with Peyton. But I also want to teach her to save money, and I got the idea for "Family Money" from Abbie's Etsy shop. Sure, I could have shelled out the $3 for the downloadable PDF for the Family Money, but I wanted to do something a little more fun with Peyton. So we designed our own Family Money.


For every day that Peyton marks all items as completed (and actually does them), she gets $1.00 in Family Money. (Note: our actual Family Money has our last name where the image says "insert Last Name.") The only chore on her list she does not have to do daily is to clean her room. She has to do that one at least twice a week. If she cleans more than twice, she gets an extra dollar for the week. Granted, $1.00 is not a lot-and it only adds up to $7 for the week (or $8 if she cleans more often), but she is still at the age where she thinks $1 is the moon. I figure as she gets older and the chores get harder (or we add more), I can up the amount. When she does something super nice or good that is extra deserving, I can use it as a reward as well. But for now, she gets super excited when she gets her $1.00. She has a special envelope she puts them in and is saving up for an easy bake oven.

At bedtime one night, I asked her what her favorite part of the day was. She thought for awhile, and I was there thinking of everything she did over the weekend (painting, her cousin's soccer game and shopping with grandma, a movie night, crafts on Sunday...). Then she answered.

"My favorite part was.... doing my chores and I got $1.00!"  Now that's Priceless.

How do you get your kids to do their chores?

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