Monday, February 6, 2012

Putting Those Kids To Work

Ok...I haven't posted in a very long time so we'll just pretend like it hasn't been months, that you hear from me so much you're very tired of me :) I'm a terrible blogger, but I swear I had a great/busy Fall 2011, very blessed Christmas, and I've been scrapping up a storm. That pretty much covers it (and I promise to TRY to post regularly!).

Ok, here's the reason I'm even posting now - I have been searching high and low for a way to keep my kids helping out around the house without yelling or guilting them into the helping. It's hard work trying to make people clean when they really don't want to! I don't like hard work...that's why I want them to help me :) So I searched pinterest and sort of found things I liked, but nothing I really thought would work for us. I don't want to give them money. I NEVER have cash and I don't think my kids keep up with IOUs nor do they take debit cards, plus they waste their money anyway and that drives me nuts. Instead of earning money they're earning "screen time" which is tv, dvd, netflix, ps3, psp, ds, computer, and tablet. The chores I came up with are each written on wooden clothes pins and assigned a time (15 or 30 min) depending on the level of difficulty. The kids choose the chores they want to do each evening after school and can earn up to 2 hours of screen time. It has to be used the same night, can't be banked for 15 hours of time on a Saturday...nope, it has an expiration date.

I began with these supplies:


I spent $17 on everything (supplies for 3 kids). I bought frames with a jute hanging string and turned them upside down. I stained them with some acrylic stain, added some scrapbook paper from my stash, and glued a stained initial in the middle of each frame. On the back I added a command hanging strip to each frame then shortened the jute string a little by tying it in a knot in the back. Here's the finished look:




I'm happy to say we started this tonight and the kids did a great job with it. The chores range from laying out clothes for tomorrow to dusting the living room (my absolute most hated chore).