Responsibilities, Behaviors, & Chores

Inspired by other blogs and ideas found on Pinterest, I've decided to redesign our rewards and responsibilites wall.  Last year, I had the kids paint mini-popsicle sticks and they earned sticks for chores.  They turned in sticks for Hooper Bucks and then either chose to cash in Hooper Bucks for real money or save up, earn "interest" and turn it in later for even more money.  

It was a good system, but didn't last long enough.  Plus the interaction was minimal.  Put sticks in your designated cup and once a week did pay outs.  After the girls went back to their mother last summer, our system fell by the wayside.  Tristan started school and things were just busy. 


With the girls coming back, I decided about a month ago to revamp the system.  I scoured Pinterest and various blogs.  Here is what I came up with.

I originally bought four nice looking boards from Walmart.  Painted them up, cut sheet metal to size, and adhered them to the boards.  The following day, the boards began to warp.  Fortunately, I had a metal board that I purchased from IKEA that happened to be large enough to fit all four kids’ sections.

 

Sorry about the poor quality pictures.  I'll get better ones taken and upload them later.

As you can see, each child has their own section with a “To Do” column and “Done” column.  They also have a section for “Chores” they have done.

 

Beneath the main board is a magnetic white board with all twenty-four chores (three of which are “Other” for those random activities that come up).  Beneath the “Pick Your Chore” board, there is a rail we purchased from IKEA and four removable cups (I've since written there names on each of the cups so they know to whom each cups belongs). 

At the end of each day, we pay our kids tokens, one for each chore and one each for completing their morning duties and evening duties without fussing (the tokens are poker chips).  My son came up with an idea of assigning values, white equals one (like a penny), blue equals five (like a nickel) and so on.  I may take up his suggestion for the older kids only.  My daughter is too young to do the math and she will probably like the idea of having “more” visually.

Here is a close-up at the “To Do” column.  These are items that each child is expected to do on a daily basis.  Some of the expected activities vary from child to child.  Below is what is shown for the two eldest.

 

Morning:

Make Your Bed

Get Dressed

Brush Your Hair

Brush Your Teeth (done after breakfast)

Take Medication (not shown – for our son only)

Evening:

Take a Shower/Bath

Pick up Toys (pick up toys in other parts of the house)

Tidy up your bedroom (two will be assigned to each room)

Brush Hair

Brush Teeth

Take Vitamin

Call Mom/Say Prayers (two eldest only – and does not have to be done every night)

Behavior:

Five happy face/thumbs up gems – given for doing things that are above and beyond, and done without prompting or reporting (we found that sometimes they like to come up and say "I helped this person with this" - which indicates they expect to be rewarded for - our goal is to catch them doing random acts of kindness, using manners, etc, and not them reporting it to us).  If they earn three or more and receive a special ticket that grants the bearer to special privileges, such as one-on-one time with a parent or Grandma, stay up late an extra 30 minutes, etc.

Three sad face/thumbs down gems – given for poor behavior.  Before they get these, they are given a warning.  If they fail to heed that warning, then they get a sad face.  Some behavior does not get a warning, such as hitting.  I still haven’t determined how exactly it will impact their chores.  It may be that once they hit three, they lose three tokens when being paid for chores or three tokens from their cup (this might be a better option since they may not have done any chores).  Also, when they hit three, they will probably face a bigger consequence than a timeout or push-ups, such as lost privileges, going to bed early, confined to bedroom for a day, etc.

Here is a close-up of the possible chores.  All of which are completely optional, but necessary if the kids want to purchase things from the store.

Chores list and details:

·       Clean Bathroom Counter & Mirror – Wear gloves. Move all of the cups in IKEA rail above the sink containing toothbrushes off to the side and any items on counter, such as mouthwash.  Spray down mirror with Windex and wipe down with paper towel. Use bathroom all purpose cleaner for the counter, wipe down with a paper towel.  Return the IKEA cups back to rail above sink and any other items.

·       Clean Windows & Glass Door – Spray down windows and sliding glass door with Windex, wipe down with paper towel.

·       Fold Laundry – kids can fold their own clothes and towels and blankets.

·       Load the Dishwasher – thoroughly rinse dirty dishes, food items down food disposal side of the sink, and load the dishwasher.  Sharp knives to be handled by adults only.  Large objects that cannot fit in dishwasher needs to be soaked in soapy water and left for an adult to handle (large cutting board, large bowls, large pans, etc).

·       Put Books Away (we have two low book shelves for the kids’ books.  After they read a book, I found it easier to have them put books in a basket put above one of the book shelves.  Then at the end of each day or two, the books get put back nice and neat)

·       Put Dishes Away – when the dishes are clean and dry, put dishes away in their designated drawers or cabinets.  Sharp knives are to be handled by an adult only.

·       Spray & Rinse the Tub – Wear gloves. Spray walls and tub with Lysol tub and shower spray, let it sit for a minute, use shower nozzle to rinse the tub walls (Adults handle the full comet scrub down)

·       Clean & Clear the Table – Clear of any dishes and such off the table, spray down with multi-purpose cleaner, and wipe down with paper towels

·       Scrub down the toilet – Wear gloves. Squirt toilet bowl cleaner inside the rim of the toilet bowl and use the toilet brush to scrub it down, flush twice.  Use bathroom all purpose cleaner to spray toilet seat and outside of toilet bowl.  Wipe down with a paper towel.

·       Stick vacuum _______ - Use the quick dirt devil vacuum to pick up obvious messes in various rooms.  Rooms that can be stick vacuumed are the kids’ rooms, hallway & stairs, living room, and dining room.  Dad is responsible for using the large vacuum 2 – 3 times a week for deeper cleaning.

·       Sweep Kitchen, Sweep Landing – use yellow broom to sweep area and dust pan to gather dirt.  Dispose of dirt in trash.

·       Swiffer Kitchen floor, Swiffer Bathroom floor – remove items on floor such as step stool, trash can, etc.  Put a new pad on Swiffer mop, spray down floor area, and mop up floor.  Discard used pad.

·       Take out the trash – remove trash bag from trash bin, tie it up, and take out to the large trash bin in front.  Check bathroom trash bins as well.

·       Yard Work with Grandma – This will be whatever grandma requests, such as pulling weeds, watering plants, etc.

·       Other – as some work comes up unexpectedly, these are reserved for those tasks.  This could include helping unload groceries from the car, putting groceries away, washing the car with a parent, etc.

Since starting the new system, I found that I need to have more "others" and "Little Helper" tokens.  The "Little Helper" tokens will be for our youngest who is not completely capable of doing most of the chores on her own.  She can assist her older siblings and still receive credit.  I found that earlier, she was having a hard time earning tokens to buy stuff in the store (at least the stuff that she really wanted).  I also have decided to combine set table and clean & clear table into one.  I plan to have two of these made so one can be for lunch and the other can be for dinner.

Another one I am adding is three "Write a Journal Entry" tokens.  I want to keep the kids writing for several reasons.  I want Tristan to keep up with his writing to practice penmanship,  vocabulary, and spelling.  I also want to encourage the girls to write about their time here and their feelings.  I want them to be able to look back and remember the good times of spending the summers with us.  

So that is it for now.  I will have another post with pictures of our store, our point values for items, and an update on how it is working.