More chores and earning money

My kids are forever wanting to buy things.  In order to buy things, they need money.  We don't do an allowance, and birthdays are only once a year.  They've been desperate to earn money.  My son came to me the other day, asking me to pull his tooth.  The way he was talking, it was so loose it would soon be falling out of his mouth.  I'm still not sure it's really loose at all.  But he was hoping to put it under his pillow to get more money towards whatever the snake hook he's really, really wanting (his favorite show on Netflix is The Jeff Corwin Experience).

 I told my hubby that before the kids start getting some crazy ideas of how to knock teeth out, we need a way for them to earn money.  And maybe we can get some stuff done around the house at the same time.  Win-win!!  

We came up with a list of chores that need to be done around the house--most on a weekly basis.  We then came up with money amounts that job is worth (turns out we're pretty cheap).

I cut 3x5 cards in half and wrote the chores out (along with instructions and needed materials) on them. I slid them into those baseball card protector sheets and put them in the family control journal that's on the counter--the same binder that holds the family schedules.

Any time the kids want to earn some extra cash loose change, they can go to that and pick whichever one(s) they want to do.  It has to be done on their own time and to my satisfaction.  And all of them (other than sweeping the floor and brushing the dog) can only be done once a week--that way I don't have one of them scrubbing the back door one night and another one picking the same chore first thing the next morning.  Since they're in the card protectors, they can mark them off with a dry-erase marker.  The marks can be erased at the beginning of each week.

Some examples are:  Cleaning the front door will earn you 20 cents (I make our glass-cleaner, etc.  No yucky chemicals I have to worry about).  Putting away toys from behind and under the couch and using the hand-vac under the couch cushions will get you a quarter.  Picking up dog potties from the yard gets you a dollar (not really a bad deal if it's really done weekly--he only goes once a day).  When it's all added up, it totals just over $4 a week.  Not too shabby for us to get some of these odd jobs done that we never seem to get around to.  After all, how often do you wipe your window sills?  And they're excited to have a less painful way to earn money.  After all, you only have so many baby teeth...

Family Schedules

My chore system is constantly undergoing renovation.  With the number of people in this house, things can get out of hand quickly.  As the children get older and are able to do more, our expectations of them change.  Each child has their own chore chart (I'm working on making the little ones' charts out of pictures).

You can see here that some things are marked off.  As I said, this is ever-changing.  We see what works and what doesn't, and I can just change it on the computer and print out a new one whenever.

This is a VERY flexible schedule.  The times are very approximate.  The JOY part is important in two ways.  One, it's a big mantra around here to keep Jesus first, Others second, Yourself last.  Others should be treated with respect, etc.  Another thing is that every chore needs to be done with the proper attitude--a joyful one!!!  I don't want grumbling and snarky remarks.

If they do all their chores for that day correctly:  in a timely manner, done to my satisfaction, done with the correct attitude, they get a sticker on a piece of paper on their bedroom door.  They LOVE picking their stickers out of my big sticker box.  Each sticker gets them 15 minutes of iPod play, to be done with a timer and on their own time.

So far, this system is working out well--both for them and for us.  I don't have time to make sure everybody is on task every moment of the day.  I got tired of asking "Did you do..." just to hear "I forgot."  Now it's all on paper, so no forgetting.  All the charts are kept in a binder on the small counter beside our refrigerator.

There are also weekly chores they can choose from.  I'll tell about those in my next post.

How do you organize the chores in your house?

Family Schedule

My sister-in-law gave me the most awesome Christmas gift ever!!  She simply took a collage frame and printed out headers with the days of the week, the title, and one that says "Extra."  

Each frame has glass over it, so she gave me a pack of dry erase markers with it, that will write on the glass then wipe right off.

This will be great for seeing at a glance what doctor appointments, 4-H meetings, homework assignments, etc we have in the upcoming week.  So simple to make, but such a brilliant idea!