Chores and Behavior

For this post to make sense you will probably want to read Operation Spencer Summer 2012 and Daily Summer Schedule first, if you haven't already.

Some friends were asking about the chore and behavior cards I'm using this summer and its hard to explain it without just showing you so... here it is. We just started this like a little over a week ago, but so far its going awesome. I looked up all kinds of chore charts on Pinterest and just couldn't find any that I liked. So I made my own creation and I really like it; I'm really happy with this set up. I can usually tell with in a day or two if something isn't going to work. And we'll definitely be doing this all summer.

This is my humble kitchen wall:

The chalkboard lists today's date, our verse of the day (after doing our morning devo from Jesus Calling for Kids), our daily craft or lesson, and what's for dinner. The dinner part is more for my reference.

At the bottom is our schedule. The same one that I posted before, in posterboard form. (A friend of mine was wanting a copy of this after the last post, so I just emailed her my excel file. I'm happy to share it if anyone wants it!) We move the clothespin to what time of day it is. I'm actually working on a picture system for Micah, Abby and Mabry, because clearly, they can't read this. Its more for me and the big girls to know what's next for who. Hopefully the picture system will be done soon and I'll try to post pictures of it when it's done.

Also on the wall, Ashley and Emily each have their own clothesline. This is where I hang their chore cards.

They have some pins for chore cards and one (to the left) for holding a punchcard and tickets (I'll explain those in a minute). The girls have morning chores and evening chores. And whatever needs to be done, I'll pin up here. They can have up to four chores each time, but usually just one or two. I base it on how time consuming that chore will be. The chore cards I've made are:

~Dust the living room

~Vacuum the stairs

~Clean the downstairs bathroom

~Clean the upstairs bathroom

~Wash the towels

~Wash the kitchen table

~Spot mop the kitchen and hallway

~Clean the living room

~Clean the bonus room

~Clean the pink room

~Clean the purple room

~Clean your room

~Clean the playroom

~Clean up the backyard

~Put away laundry

~Unload the dishwasher

~Sweep the kitchen and hallway

(The last two or three they get at least once a day. They rotate getting the sweeping card at every chore time. Also, helping with their siblings doesn't count as chore work.)

Ok so. The back of these cards all say "Done!" and once they have finished that chore, they take it off, flip it over, clip it back and leave it there. Once I see all their chores are done, I go gather up their cards, take the cards through the house and check the work. One of my favorite mommy books says "Inspect what you expect" and its grown to be a new motto for me. If one of their chores isn't complete or wasn't done correctly, she'll have to go back and do it again. Once they're all done correctly, she'll get a punch in her punchcard for each chore completed.

I also want to add that they've been taught how to do each of these chores thoroughly. They know what's expected. (I saw an idea that I love and want to do-- making a list of steps for a chore, laminate it, and then post it somewhere in that room. So if a card says "Clean the bathroom" make a checklist and hang it behind the bathroom door. That's next on my list after the little kids's picture chore chart and schedule.)

Anyway, then once they have a full punchcard, they turn it in for $3. They know that this is subject to change. Right now it seems about fair. I think they're going to average one card a week. Maybe faster. But for all the work they're putting in, I think its about right for now.

So then that $3 gets taken over to their money cans:

They put .30 cents in their tithe can because they know that the word "tithe" actually means tenth. And we do that first because Jesus always gets our first fruits. How much they put into savings is up to them, but they know that they aren't allowed to touch those cans until they reach $50. Anything left goes into spending. I have to say I'm surprised that they usually put most of it in savings. I don't know what they're saving for but I know they want it pretty bad. ;)

So that's how we're doing chores around here!

As for behavior...

I've made some "tickets". A whole big stack of them. Whenever I see good behavior or random acts of kindness, they'll get a ticket. Right now we've got:

~Stay up and extra 30 minutes

~Hair straightening or curling

~Manicure or pedicure (from me, we're not going to the salon or anything!)

~Bake cookies with mom

~Extra snacktime

~Bubble bath in mom's tub

~Treat from the ice cream truck

~Toy from the dollar bins (this can be Target or the real dollar store where everything is $1)

~Play at Grannie's house

~Movie before bed

~Bike ride to the park with dad

~Sleep in the bonus room

~Free punch on chore card

~Sonic slush

The restrictions: These may be redeemed at anytime but Mom reserves the right to say "not right now". And just because your sister has a card, doesn't mean you get to utilize it too. (ie. If Ashley is using the "Movie before bed" card, Emily doesn't get to watch it too.) But if they want to save a certain card until their sister draws one too, and use them at the same time, that's okay.

Lastly, if they are behaving badly, these tickets can be taken away. When they are given, they draw from the stack without looking. When they are taken away, I get to choose which one is taken. If they are misbehaving, they get one warning and after that, I take a ticket.

Here are all of my cards (front and back), tickets and punchcards close up:

One of my favorite parts of all of this is that it was ALL FREE! I have a ton of scrapbook paper and made all of this with that paper, scissors, a glue stick and a sharpie. And it honestly didn't take that long. 

The chore cards each have 4 squares: a front, a back, a front label and a back label. If I could laminate them I would. I want these to last for a good long time.

The punchcards are just one little square of the thicker, color-on-both-sides paper.

The tickts are just one rectangle of thin scrapbook paper and the back is just white with sharpie ink bleeding through. ;) Not super cute, but whatever. And I know over time, these will become not-so-exciting-and-cool anymore and I'll be making new ones.

The clothesline is just some embroidery floss I had a bunch of, but you could use anything. And its tied to pushpins.

The money cans are literally just soup cans covered with paper using a glue stick. :)

One last thing-- and I just added this over the weekend. I bought some of those Scholastic Summer workbooks. (Click here and here.) Each day they do the front and back of one worksheet that has vocab, grammar, writing, reading, math and more. We're doing them at "table time" after lunch. Its not much but we're trying to further prevent summer mind-mush. I also bought some fun flashcards for the little ones with numbers, letters, colors, shapes, etc. I have some home-made ones but they seem to like the store bought ones so much more. They're prettier. :)

I think that's it! I know this totally would not work for every family-- and clearly this is just for 1/3 of my kids-- but its a helpful system for me and I hope it helps someone else!