Chore Chart. Teaching Hard Work & Money Management

Our way of doing chores and cleaning is constantly evolving and adapting.

Wanting to put more responsibility on the kids and also wanting a way for them to earn money, I came up with this simple chart.

How to Make it:

1. If you want to make it look a little bit cute, find a piece of scrapbook paper you like for the back. This is totally optional. :)
2. Get a piece of paper and divide it long wise into how many sections you need for how many kids you have doing chores. Mine is 3. (LM, LB, LL)
3. Leave a big space next to where you'll write their names for the square chore cards. Next to that draw a small space for the sun & moon. These represent morning & night.
4. Then divide the rest of the paper into the days of the week, adding an extra space for extra Saturday chores.
5. In each box write the money-value they can earn for completing their chores. I chose 10 cents for the daily chores, and 60 cents for doing the extra Saturday chores. (We also decided not to pay the kids for doing chores on Sunday).
6. After the chart is all made, place it inside a sheet protector.
7. Make "chore cards" that fit inside the square space you've created. You can make many or just 3 that rotate. You can make special ones for the kids' different ages. Just figure out what needs to get done, and what chores the kids are capable of performing. To keep it simple, I chose only 3 chores that we rotate each day. They stick to the sheet protector with sticky-tack.

How it Works!

• These chores are to be done after breakfast, and after dinner.
• If the child does his/her chore, then I circle the 10 cents with a dry erase marker. If they decide not to do their chore, it doesn't get circled.
• Each day we rotate the chores. (or you can rotate each week).
• The Saturday chores are where we all do housework and yardwork and I give assignments to each of the kids depending on what needs to get done.

• At the end of the week, we'll add up how much each child has earned and give them their money.
• They keep their money in zipper pencil pouches. 
• We have separate bags for them to set aside 10% for Tithing for our church, and 10% for Savings.
• Then we erase all the circles and start over the next week!

In Review:

We've done this system for about 3 weeks now. My children are ages 7, 5, and 2, and all have different personalities. So it has worked differently for each child:

• My 7 year old (LM) is very motivated and often just needs to be reminded once. He rarely misses a chore and is very excited about earning money.
• My 5 year old (LB) needs much more reminding and also some help getting the chore done. Though he might not comprehend completely the value of money, he likes when it's money time.
• My 2 year old (LL) doesn't understand much of the whole system, but for both my 5 year old and 2 year old, they are learning to help out around the house, and hopefully the rest will come as they get older.
• I do like having them earn a little bit of money. It's been a good tool for teaching about tithing and savings. And that they have a little money they can use for things they want to buy. Especially for my 7 year old that wants to buy everything he sees. It's helpful to show there is a limit to how much we can spend.

Therefore: 

This is helpful to have to remind us all to do chores, and to help teach about money. My 7 year old is gaining the MOST from this kind of chore chart, so if you try it with young kids and find it's not working too well, maybe come back to it when they are a bit older and it will be much more meaningful.  :)

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