Our Routines, Chores and Reward System

I've been meaning to write this post since the start of the 2013/2014 School Year! Lots of people ask me about my system for keeping our kids organized during the school year and it's not as easy as just sending them a link to the system I follow. Since we have 8 years between our kids it was very hard to find one system that would work for both kids, so I had to combine a few of my favorites from Pinterest and make my own. Because our system is homemade and it is more than just a chores list it might take a few posts to cover everything. So as sort of an introduction to this mini-series here's an overview of what I wanted in our system and some background info,

What I wanted:

Routine and Accountability: I want my kids to follow a basic routine without me telling them every step to take. Of course the 5 year old requires more guidance than the 13 year old (and some days vice versa) but for the basic daily functions they should be able to work without constant reminding.

Organization: Between, work, school, practices, church, etc. life can get hectic and I have two kids that thrive on routine. Things are much more relaxed and peaceful when everyone knows what’s coming up next. Problem is I'm just as scatterbrained as my 13 year old so I needed something that was pretty simple and straight forward and required little thought but also helped to keep us all organized. I also wanted a system that would incorporate all of the household chores for both me and my hubby as well.

Behavior Modification & Consequences: Without causing a stir, I will very briefly say that we are spanking household (done the biblical way), however, we don't believe that every offense is cause for a spanking, in fact by the time you have a 5 and 13 year old there are very few instances that require corporal punishment. But, we have always struggled with finding appropriate consequences that are effective and applicable to the offense. Both of our kids enjoy quiet time alone so that just wasn't cutting it, and when you have a teenager, some days it feels like they every time they open their mouth it's something that requires a punishment and how many times in one day can you take away a phone? For now we think we found something that works (for now).

Money Management Skills: OK, I know this is a deep topic and some parents don't believe in "paying kids for things you expect them to do" and I get that. But, I also understand that one of my jobs as a parent is to teach my kids to have a healthy relationship with money and a strong understanding that work = money. I think an "allowance" just for existing is basically unemployment and my kids don't deserve to get paid just because they're cute and live in my house. They should feel proud that they earned their money and they should be expected to use that money to fund all of the fun things that they want to do and buy outside of birthdays and Christmas. Case in point: when C wanted a yearbook last year he saved up the $30 that it would cost because that was a want not a need, and when I told him that I would pay for half of this year book, he was truly grateful that he didn't have to pay for the whole yearbook and it reinforced a sense of gratefulness instead of an attitude of expectations. So, that is why we do pay our kids for some of the work they do around the house. There are things that we expect of them, and then there are additional things that they can do that help take the load off mom and dad, and in turn they earn money and we have more family time together because we all worked as a team. I will not wait until my kids have their first jobs at 16 when they are in the I know it all stage to teach them money management; it is far too late by that point.

Rewards: While we use money as a payout for some household chores, we wanted to reward our children and motivate them to do the mundane things and to reinforce some of the characteristics that we expect of them.

Restrict electronic use: We also wanted a system that caused our children to think before they made the choice to watch television or play on an iPad, so we incorporated tickets for electronic use as well.

What I didn't want:

I didn't want a system that created a reward for every time they made the bed or brushed their teeth, who really wants to keep up with all of that?

I didn't want a system that required a dedicated wall in my house or an entire counter just to keep up with everything.

I love the concept of Accountable Kids but just couldn't shell out the amount of money that it required for 2 kids so I created my own home grown system that took an entire school year to perfect and is similar to the Accountable Kids method.

That is the jist of what I was trying to incorporate in our system, and I will tackle each topic in upcoming posts to break it down even more. 

But for now, I will share with you the site that I used to download or tickets:  Behavior Tickets

I used this laminator to laminate the tickets for longer lasting use. Amazon very often has that laminator on sale!