Chore Cards

UPDATE: I am now selling INSTANT DOWNLOADS of the binder system described below. 


In my family each of my children has a "Responsibility Binder". (NOW AVAILABLE AS AN INSTANT DOWNLOAD!) In this binder you will find:
Their daily responsibilities "to-do" list
Their Chore Cards pages, Monday through Saturday
Calendar (for our monthly planning meeting)
Independence List
and Personal Interview page.

Not only does this teach my children personal accountability, but also about the importance of personal planning and organization.
And FYI - my oldest is 8 and even my 3 year old has one! So don't think that your child is too young for something like this!

Our Chore Cards fit perfectly into baseball card page protectors! So every week on Sunday nights I update all my kids binders for the upcoming weeks chore assignments.
(Oh... and FYI I have a master binder that holds all the cards.) It's inside my Family Planner.

Each child has Monday through Saturday  separate chore pages and each page holds 3-5 chores depending on the age of the child and the difficulty of the chore.

 Once a chore has been completed, and I pass it off, they turn it over.

After they complete their Saturday chores, they get paid. We call Saturday "Pay Day". I pay my children .25 cents a chore. This usually accumulates to $5-$7 a week.

Here is the catch. I like the things that I teach my kids to apply to the real world. Soooooo,

**Chores are not mandatory in our household!!** You're probably thinking, "WHAT??!!!!?!?!"

Here's why:

In the real world, if you go to work, you get paid. And once you're at work, you don't get to pick and choose what you get to do, you do what you're assigned and what needs to get done.
So, if my kids decide that they don't want to do their chores that day, they don't get paid. Simple as that. HOWEVER, If they decide to "go to work" and do their chores, they don't get to pick and choose which ones they do that day and which ones they don't. They do what they were assigned.

Yes this system means that there are days when chores don't get done. But come pay day, when one child get's $7 and the other only gets $3 it's a real bite in the butt! And more often than not, the $3 kid works way harder the next week due to that poor pay day.

Now one thing that IS mandatory is their Personal Responsibilities.

(Making their bed, keeping their room clean, picking up after themselves, doing their homework, getting up and ready for the day and putting themselves to sleep responsibly by brushing their teeth and getting their backpacks and lunches ready for the next day.)

In the real world, you have responsibilities. And in the real world, you don't get paid to fulfill your responsibilities.
Granted, when you grow up, chores become responsibilities, but when kids are young, chores are the closest thing to "work". 

Now I know that this won't work for everyone. Every family has a different system. So, I'm sure you could use these cards in a million different ways.

*Put them on Popsicle sticks

*Attach a key chain and sort the chores by day with 5 or 6 separate key chains, and then hang it on a chore board.

*Attach magnets and put them on your fridge....

If you decide to do something else with these cards let me know! I'd love to see them and showcase it!

CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK TO THE FREE DOWNLOAD 
or click the picture at the top of this post.

Happy Parenting!

UPDATE: If you're looking for something a bit more integrated or even MORE chore cards.... CLICK HERE

Teaching Kids to Make Their Beds

Say Hello to the Bed Fairy!

Print this cute note out via Organic Families and leave it on your child's un-made bed.

Then surprise them with either of the following notes for a job well done/not-so well done.

 Visit Organic Families to see pictures of her kid's beds and see how well it worked for her! Thanks Organic Families for this free printable!

Randsome Rubbage Box

Sick of picking up after your kids ALL. DAY. LONG?!

Look what this Mom invented?

A Randsome Rummage Box!

If she finds something on the floor, it goes in the box.
And they can't get it back until the EARN it back by picking a job from the envelope on the lid.

She includes an entire list of job ideas for you to use.

I've also seen this idea called a "Gunny Sack" or a "Monster bag" that "eats" all the toys found laying about.

FYI:
Halloween is a great time to buy a "monster bag". This is what we've used in our house and I got our cute blue canvas bag with a monster on it at target last Halloween for $1!

But I think I'm going to switch over to this "randsome box" idea. I like that they have to do chores to earn it back. I'm hoping that will encourage them to stop leaving their things all over, as opposed to just having their stuff taken away for a while in the Monster Bag.