Chore Magnets

Ahhh, chores. Everyone's least favorite subject. We've tried a bunch of ideas - flat allowance for doing their list of chores every week (I wound up being queen nag reminding them to do them, they huffed and puffed, and everyone was crabby)...tried little inexpensive "treats" for helpful behavior (waste of money)...and earning "stars" in exchange for an item (meh - the excitement wore off long before said item was earned).

I recently came up with this new idea (an alteration from an idea on Pinterest) and, lo and behold, it WORKS GREAT! I don't have to nag, my kids ASK to do chores (and do them with happiness), and nobody fights!!! And they really, truly help out.

Here's what we do:
There's a list of things they're expected to do during the week because they are part of a household. These things include keeping their rooms clean, making their beds, putting towels away after bath, bringing dishes to sink after dinner, putting toys away, and bringing hamper to washing machine when asked.

If (and only if) those things are done with little to no reminding, they can do other things to earn money. They earn money on a chore-by-chore basis. I keep a running tally on the fridge. Every Friday is payday (just like Mommy and Daddy). I originally made little magnets with the name of each individual chore on them with the amount of money the chore is worth (between 25 cents and 75 cents).

But then I realized their abilities were way greater than I'd originally given them credit for (and they can't read yet) - so now I offer chores as they become available, or sometimes they ask.

Here's some of the ones we do:

-Helping empty the dishwasher

-Helping folding laundry (and getting to play with it a little)...

-Helping weed the garden

-Cleaning toilets (yes, you read that right) - we use non-toxic vinegar and baking soda. Pour some vinegar in (about 10 oz) then sprinkle in about 6 oz of baking soda and it fizzes up and cleans it! We scrub the concotion around a bit and it's done. The kids love doing it and call it a "toilet volcano". Of course they have to wash their hands super good afterwards. Once a month or so I pull out the heavy artillery and clean the toilets with bleach but the natural stuff works good for the regular cleanings.

-Doing laundry - someone mentioned to me that the had their 5-year-old doing laundry and I was shocked. But I gave it a try. I showed my 5-year-old how to use the machine and wrote "Push" and "Pull" on the knobs as appropriate. I used a sharpie to mark which settings to use and which direction to turn the dial. If I'm washing something special I just do it myself, but most of the time we wash large loads in cold water. It's easy to measure the soap using the lid. Same with the dryer - move dial to correct spot, taught her how to remove the lint trap, and she can identify the word "Push". AND best of all, she LIKES doing it!

-Take out recycle bin

-Dust (everything within their arm's reach)

-Sweep floor (needed to get a mini-sized broom for this)

-Help clean chicken coop

-Run lint roller over furniture

-Wipe down walls (an unexpected favorite)

If they don't do any chores in a given week, that's fine, they just don't earn any allowance. I never nag or get mad - they're chores that are usually MINE, so I'm fully prepared to do them anyways. The only stipulation is that they try their best (I don't expect perfection from preschoolers) and that they do the job to completion. Everyone is happy!

So far they've earned enough money to start the "Penny Saver" accounts at our Credit Union!!!

I made the magnets by printing out the list of chores on my printer, cutting them out, then gluing them to little wooden disks (from Michaels). Then I hot-glued the disks to little magnets (also from Michaels). I need to re-do them with super glue, the disks keep popping off the magnets when the kids pull them on/off the fridge.