Chore Charts & Pocket Money

With the New Year approaching fast, and my children coming to the age where my husband and I have decided to begin pocket money (they are 8, 6 and 5), we've decided to implement a two-pronged attack :)

The issues of pocket money and chores will, at this stage, remain separate. They will get paid an amount equal to half their age (so $4, $3 and $2.50) because we want them to experience making sound financial choices when the amounts are small. Technically speaking, they will be paid this amount irrespective of the chores arrangement - so its more like we're beginning two new systems and the timing is coincidental. In reality, we'll play it by ear.

The pocket money will be divided into two - half immediately goes into their piggy banks (which periodically get deposited to their savings accounts), and half is kept in their wallets/coin purse and is free to be spent. Money given as gifts (birthdays, Christmas) is free to spend in full, though Mum and Dad will encourage the 50-50 rule whenever possible. We'll make them up their own booklets showing their savings account history (our local bank doesn't do this as a general rule anymore with the type of accounts the kids will have) and take them along with us when we visit the bank so they have concrete experience with how money is handled, deposited, stored and withdrawn.

As well as money handling skills, I want to spend a large part of 2007 concentrating on their general behaviour and 'part of the family' skills. General co-operation and helping around the house needs some work! (*grin*)

We've been doing the Routines with the kids for quite some time - we're a bit looser during the school holidays (it's summer holidays for another four weeks here in Australia) so most of the benefits won't be seen until school starts up again in the last week of January, but now seemed like the perfect time to go that one step further.

We've chosen Thursdays for Payday, so our Chore Charts begin on that day.



I just got these laminated today. I've chosen eight main chores:

Morning Routine
Make your bed
Keep your bedroom tidy
Bring your clothes to the Laundry
Afternoon Routine
Kitchen Chore
Put toys away
Before Bed Routine

As well as these, I have four extra spots to handwrite in chores, depending on whether I feel we need to concentrate on a particular skill for a few weeks, or if we've got an event coming up that needs preparing for.

Wish I had some groovier fridge magnets!

If you look closely at the above picture, you can see a black-lidded marker in the top right hand corner. It turns out the extra 'finger grip' on our fridge (the door of which can be hung from either side, hence two finger grips) is perfect as a pen holder. It doesn't interfere with the opening of the door and its right there when we need it.

The laminating makes all the difference. I had tried using clear contact paper before but the effect wasn't nearly as professional or long-lasting. The reason for the sheer surface is that I wanted to be able to write on it using whiteboard markers - that way there isn't the need to reprint a new chart each week, and the ticks (or smiley faces!) are simply erased with a dry cloth.

Here's a close up shot of one of the charts.

One of the main things we want to achieve through the use of the charts is better behaviour. The Chore Chart is more of a checklist of jobs that need to be done, but it doesn't reward the kids for initiative or good attitude. We have pretty good kids, but they need some direction to think beyond their own needs and that's where the Values Chart comes in.

Between the kids and I we decided on some things we felt were good values to promote in our home. Both of our boys do something similar at their schools so were familiar with the concept already, and in addition, both of them have reward-based behaviour systems in their classrooms. Our Values are:

Be helpful
Use your manners
Be responsible
Take turns
Do chores quickly and without fuss

Anytime we see one of the kids displaying good examples of the above Values, they get a tick on the Values Chart. It's sort of like a bonus for going beyond the call of duty. We have various rewards they can choose from when they reach 10 Values ticks - things like choosing an item from the Lucky Box (a box filled with inexpensive knick knacks the kids seem to go wild for), renting a kids' DVD, an afternoon out alone with Mum or Dad, cook with Mum, staying up an extra 30 minutes. We sat down and brainstormed together.

I bought this calendar today because a) I was tired of printing out one month at a time from the generic 'do it yourself' printable sites and b) it had really big squares. Most of the calendars are on sale at 50% off this week - I picked this one up for a bit over $11. It's a Hallmark 17 month Planner Calendar (goes right through till May 08) and will be perfect for our family.

A final word:

We struggled with a way to demonstrate to the kids what the consequences of bad behaviour would be. We toyed with the idea of docking the pocket money but felt that would be less successful than taking away other privileges. The last thing we wanted was for them to develop a belief that they didn't need any money that week so were free to misbehave. So in conjunction with the above two systems, we've also introduced Screen Free Days. Any behaviour that is blatantly disrespectful or malicious results in removal (of item or of child) from anything with a screen - TV, DVD, Playstation, hand-held electronic games, stereo etc. My kids are very much children of the 'noughties' and this would be akin to cutting off their lifelines - at least according to them!

Cheers,
Lizzie