Chore Charts

I created some chore charts in Microsoft Excel for my older kids, ages 6, 5, and 4, to reward good behavior and good attitudes. Since we homeschool, I also included schoolwork as an additional motivation for them. I reward all chores, schoolwork, and good attitudes with a smiley face, and on Mondays, I give them a penny for every smiley face. I also have a small section of bad attitudes that get a frowney face, and they lose a penny for every frowney face. There's really no way to do all the chores and schoolwork in one day, but they're on the chart to be rewarded when they DO get done, not as incentive to complete them every day.

When I created the charts, I had specific things I wanted to improve in our kids. You could create your own chart for the specific things your children need. For example, my children have a terrible habit of interrupting, so I put interrupting under the bad attitudes. We also have a whiner, so whining made the list, too. I have one child who breezes through her schoolwork, paying little attention to whether she's doing it properly or not, so I put "Get 100%" on the good behavior list. (The one who always gets 100% sure enjoys it!)

I made it to last a week, and I print it out every week for every child. Since we started, my younger ones have begun to help with chores, too, so I decided to let them in on the action. I print them out on plain computer paper, and then make an event of letting the children color and decorate their own charts.

As a side note, I posted the same chart for myself so the children could see how much money they could make if they would do my chores all week. It worked! The first week, I got $0.75, while they earned merely $0.17 or $0.20. The very next day, I woke up to my older two doing the dishes, the laundry, and the table! In fact, Saja completed nearly every chore on the chart!

Some people think that you shouldn't pay kids to do things that they should be doing anyway, like housework or schoolwork. But I have found, in the last three weeks, that I fight my kids much less, and their behavior has much improved. It's worth it to me.

Fishing in Hell

On one of our long car trips, Grandma gave us tiny, disposable cups, and told us to pass out different types of food in them to make the trip more interesting. So, at one point, we passed out goldfish, and we asked the kids where in the world they were fishing. Saja said, "Canada." David said, "The lake."

Kora said, "Hell."

What? Did I hear that correctly? "Kora, sweetie, I didn't hear you very well. Where are you fishing?"

"Hell!"

Chris and I stifled our chuckles.

Chris asked, "What kind of fish are in Hell?"

With authority and knowledge, Kora replied immediately, "Sharks and catfish."

Oh, well, then.