Ever since we found out about we are expecting our 4th child, I’ve been diligent about getting a chore system in place for our family. I’ll admit that I have been very lax, allowing myself to get overwhelmed and stressed out for the fact of wanting my kids to just stay kids and have fun around the house. This was until I found myself cleaning up after them while they spent hours glued to the iPad or making a mess, in literally every room.
I knew giving them chores was the right thing to do. It gave them motivation, taught them accountability, and gave them a couple of extra dollars every week to teach them money management.
The first chore system I put into place was cute, but as time went by it wasn’t effective for us. Mainly because the kids would want to get everything done when they got home from school and expect to be paid. It wasn’t clear on when things should be done, so they tried to be sneaky around it.
I then found this cute printable, stuck it in a sheet protector, and we use a wet erase marker to update the list on things I need done each day. I can edit it when I want and put specifically when things need to be done.
Now that we’ve finally got a system in place, I wanted a fun and easy way to keep track of them actually doing their chores! We made the decision of giving them an allowance, half their age a week. This isn’t about rewarding them for helping, but more of a motivation and to learn money management skills.
I’ve seen a lot of chore cards floating around Pinterest and thought of creating my own.
What I did was I printed them out, laminated them and the kids have their own little “Chore Debit Cards.” Every night I go over their chores list and if they did everything I circle (or heart) the day and check it off. If they have every day checked off for the week, they get their allowance on Sunday night. If they missed a day or did not complete it, they get money deducted from their weekly allowance.
Here are our laminated cards:
Want your own Chore Card?
Thanks for stopping by and feel free to share your chore chart links and advice below in the comments!
This will definitely come in handy in the future!