Moms, if you’re anything like me you’re always trying to figure out new ways to motivate your kids to help, hold them accountable, and land on an appropriate reward or compensation.

• Do we pay an allowance?
• Do kids work on commission?
• What is/is not the expected contribution merely as a member of this family?
• When must chores be completed and to whose standards?
• When is it worth a battle…and when is it not?

We’ve gone round and round with these questions, trying several approaches. To be honest, most of the failing is due to our own inconsistency in enforcing the rules. There have been times I’ve “owed” our kids money, but I don’t have cash in the house…so the reward of being paid for work completed is a bit diminished when they have to wait for payday.

Other times we’ve failed out of sheer busyness. We used to be absolutely firm in starting Saturday mornings with chores [and I had an entire system for that], however with sports and church activities and a crazy husband, Saturday mornings have proven tricky. Maybe once school’s out we’ll give it another go.

Until then, I have a new kind of chore chart which will hopefully prove helpful even with little ones who don’t read. If you’re a Mac user, you should be able to click, drag, and print. If that doesn’t work or if you’re a PC user, feel free to email me and I’ll be happy to send you the PDF.

ALLOW ME TO POINT OUT A FEW FEATURES:

1. There is a place on this chore chart for the name of the child assigned these particular chores and place for your child to state a weekly goal [i.e: to complete 3 days in a row, 4 days total, all chores, etc.]
2. Write down when chores should be completed by in order to earn the corresponding money [i.e: completed before school, by dinner, before bedtime]
3. $ Earned is where you write down the grand total earned for that week by that particular child
4. Assign each chore a value–but be creative! We’ll be paying our children cash, but perhaps yours are more motivated by a special dessert after supper, a night at the library, a date with grandma, or a video rental. You get to decide!
5. Checkboxes to indicate completion and approval by mom and dad: yes if they pass, no if they don’t…just like that note you passed to your boyfriend in junior high.
6. LASTLY, use the empty boxes to either DRAW the chore [for young workers] or write the words [for older workers]. For an even greater brain-based learning experience, have your child draw the chore!

[first published on my former blog]