Chore Chart. Teaching Hard Work & Money Management

Our way of doing chores and cleaning is constantly evolving and adapting.

Wanting to put more responsibility on the kids and also wanting a way for them to earn money, I came up with this simple chart.

How to Make it:

1. If you want to make it look a little bit cute, find a piece of scrapbook paper you like for the back. This is totally optional. :)
2. Get a piece of paper and divide it long wise into how many sections you need for how many kids you have doing chores. Mine is 3. (LM, LB, LL)
3. Leave a big space next to where you'll write their names for the square chore cards. Next to that draw a small space for the sun & moon. These represent morning & night.
4. Then divide the rest of the paper into the days of the week, adding an extra space for extra Saturday chores.
5. In each box write the money-value they can earn for completing their chores. I chose 10 cents for the daily chores, and 60 cents for doing the extra Saturday chores. (We also decided not to pay the kids for doing chores on Sunday).
6. After the chart is all made, place it inside a sheet protector.
7. Make "chore cards" that fit inside the square space you've created. You can make many or just 3 that rotate. You can make special ones for the kids' different ages. Just figure out what needs to get done, and what chores the kids are capable of performing. To keep it simple, I chose only 3 chores that we rotate each day. They stick to the sheet protector with sticky-tack.

How it Works!

• These chores are to be done after breakfast, and after dinner.
• If the child does his/her chore, then I circle the 10 cents with a dry erase marker. If they decide not to do their chore, it doesn't get circled.
• Each day we rotate the chores. (or you can rotate each week).
• The Saturday chores are where we all do housework and yardwork and I give assignments to each of the kids depending on what needs to get done.

• At the end of the week, we'll add up how much each child has earned and give them their money.
• They keep their money in zipper pencil pouches. 
• We have separate bags for them to set aside 10% for Tithing for our church, and 10% for Savings.
• Then we erase all the circles and start over the next week!

In Review:

We've done this system for about 3 weeks now. My children are ages 7, 5, and 2, and all have different personalities. So it has worked differently for each child:

• My 7 year old (LM) is very motivated and often just needs to be reminded once. He rarely misses a chore and is very excited about earning money.
• My 5 year old (LB) needs much more reminding and also some help getting the chore done. Though he might not comprehend completely the value of money, he likes when it's money time.
• My 2 year old (LL) doesn't understand much of the whole system, but for both my 5 year old and 2 year old, they are learning to help out around the house, and hopefully the rest will come as they get older.
• I do like having them earn a little bit of money. It's been a good tool for teaching about tithing and savings. And that they have a little money they can use for things they want to buy. Especially for my 7 year old that wants to buy everything he sees. It's helpful to show there is a limit to how much we can spend.

Therefore: 

This is helpful to have to remind us all to do chores, and to help teach about money. My 7 year old is gaining the MOST from this kind of chore chart, so if you try it with young kids and find it's not working too well, maybe come back to it when they are a bit older and it will be much more meaningful.  :)

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Playtime Hearts

I recently had our 4th child, and we also recently moved.

I've been busy and tired and we are trying to find our new rhythm.....

and I'm trying not to lose my marbles. :)

The kids seem to be acting up a little bit more lately, and I've been praying & asking for help and guidance as a Mother.

The answer that keeps coming back to me is to spend more time with my kids.

Because when all is said and done, I know that is what really matters to me.

So I came up with an idea to help make that happen:

PLAYTIME HEARTS.

Here's what I did:

1. I traced heart shapes onto yellow paper and cut them out. They are roughly 2 1/2 inches big. I cut out about 26 hearts.

2. I wrote on each heart a fun activity that I know the kids like to play. 

A lot of these are things they've asked me to play with them in the past......the ones where I have given the all-too-often response of "not now."

I came up with these myself, but it would be fun to sit down with your kids and think of fun things to do together. 

Here's a list of what we've got:

Cars

Airplanes

Legos

Color

Dance

Trains

Super Heroes

Paper Airplanes

Play Library

Wii

Game (3 of these. We have a lot of games)

Soccer Outside

Catch Outside

Ninja Turtles

Mazes

Make no-bake cookies

Little People

*Your Choice (2 of these)

(I also left a few hearts blank so I could add things later that we think of to play).

3. I taped them onto the little chalkboard we have hanging up in our kitchen (You could tape them up anywhere).

4. And from here it's easy! I let the kids take turns picking a heart and we do whatever is on the heart, together. Sometimes there is a time limit (20-30 minutes depending on what's going on that day) and sometimes we just play and I try to just forget the time and focus on my kids. It's been refreshing to remember what it's like to play as a kid. It's good for all of us. :)

Some days are busy and we don't pick any hearts.

Some days are wide open and each of the kids get a chance to pick a heart.

Sometimes it's when my oldest is at school and it's just me and the little ones.

Sometimes it's all of us together as a family, including Daddy.

This week we used one of the hearts as our activity for Family Home Evening.

And sometimes we play without picking a heart at all. :)

When all the hearts have been picked, I'll tape them back up and start again.

This idea was a direct answer to my prayers.

We've done it for the past week, and it has been so much FUN!

It's helped us all in so many ways. The kids seem to not be acting up quite as much. I've noticed so many wonderful qualities in my children when we sit and play together---because I'm actually paying attention to them! Something I needed to be reminded to do.

But most of all it's helped me make the time for what truly matters to me--matters more than anything and everything.

My family.

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Lego Straw Race!

 

Here is another SUPER easy and fun game we did at LM's Lego Party!
The boys had a lot of fun with this one. Check it out!

Supplies:

• Legos
• Straws
• Cups
• Plates

How to Play!

1. Give each child a plate with a handful of Legos on it, a straw, and a cup.

2. Have them each use their straw to try to transfer their Legos from the plate to the cup---by sucking up through the straw to hold the lego on the end of the straw!

3. Once they get them all in, they can either dump them back out onto the plate and try again, or give them another handful!

**Optional: If you want to make it a competition, you can see who gets done first, etc.

OR, you could have them all racing against a timer.

OR, like us, you can just let them have fun without any competition. And for these 6-7 year olds that was all they needed!

Don't forget to check out

**MY BOOK!**

Get your copy on Amazon (on sale!) for some super fun and easy to make craft projects for Holiday themes all year long!

HAVE FUN!

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Easy & Energetic St. Patrick's Day Game for Kids!

I love the excitement surrounding any Holiday.

Even St. Patrick's Day gets my kids excited and full of energy!

If your kids have a little extra excitement this time of year, here is a fun way to burn off some of that energy!

Supplies:

• White cardstock
• Green construction paper
• Marker
• Scissors
• Glue

Prep Work:

1. Use a small cup (or something else round) and trace 24 circles onto a couple pieces of white cardstock. Mine are about 2 1/2" big.

2. Cut them out. (*HINT: You can also use the stack & cut method I always use: Trace onto one paper and put 1-2 more underneath to cut out more at once!)

3. Using the green construction paper, draw and cut out 6 small clover shapes that fit onto the circle.
     OR you can draw clover shapes right onto 6 of the circles with a green marker.

4. Glue the clovers onto 6 of the circles.

5. On the rest of the circles, draw a smiley face with a marker.

Time to Play!!

• Lay out all the circles on a table or floor.
• Take turns choosing a circle and turn it over. 

• If you get a SMILEY FACE ---- RUN to the nearest mirror and show yourself your biggest smile!

• If you get a LUCKY CLOVER ---- JUMP up and down as you say, "Hooray! Hooray! Today is my LUCKY DAY!" 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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Family Activities for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is a day of love. And as a family, we LOVE to play games! Check out some of our Valentine's Games and share this day of love with your entire family! 

 ♥ Click a picture below to see that post. ♥

Do you like these ideas? 

Check out a bunch of other fun and easy Valentine's Day Ideas for kids:

             


And these cute and easy valentine's day crafts!

  

Family Valentine Pockets

I wanted to do something this Valentine's Day where our family could give each other Valentines!

So I created these simple pockets out of paper to hold all the love. And best of all it's so easy! Check it out! ♥

♥ Supplies:

• 2 pieces of 12x12 scrapbook paper (different patterns)
• 1 piece of white cardstock
• Construction paper in red, pink, purple
• Scissors
• Marker
• Glue or Double Stick Tape

♥ Prep Work:

1. Count the people in your family and cut that # of rectangles out of one of the pieces of scrapbook paper. Lay them out how you want them on the other piece of scrapbook paper.

2. Fold a piece of paper and cut out a heart to go on the front of each pocket. Use this as a template to trace onto the white cardstock.

3. Write each person's name onto the hearts and glue or tape them onto the pocket papers.
4. Place glue or tape along the sides and bottom of each pocket and put them into place on the scrapbook paper. **Note: in order to give them a little bit more of an opening at the top, place a few fingers underneath the paper at the top as you press the sides and bottom down:

Now the valentines can easily be slipped inside!

5. Next, get your construction paper and trace your same heart template (or a little smaller) onto it several times. Stack your papers and cut out the hearts:

Now you've got your hearts already to go!

6. Hang your pockets on the wall using tape or push pins. Place your hearts in a bowl or bag nearby.

7. Either set aside a time, or just let everyone write valentines whenever they wish to!
   

 I cut out enough hearts so that each person could write a valentine to every other person. I'm going to have us focus on writing the things we love about each other. I think we'll choose a person each day and everyone will write something they love about that person and put the hearts in their pocket.

Then on Valentine's Day, we can each take out our hearts and read all the things our family loves about us!

♥

♥  HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! ♥

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