the nickel chore system

So I have been seeing a lot of chore charts around…and here is another one…I know, I know. Boring…but this is really good. Promise.

This post is also about a chore system which I will explain first…if you want the instructions on just the chart scroll down.

I was visiting a friend and remarked on how clean her house was. Her response was that her kids keep her house clean. WHat!? Then she told me all about her chore system.

She gives her boys five set chores per day and pays them a nickel for each completed chore. If they choose not to do their chore they can pay mom, dad, or a sibling to do it for them for a “maid service” fee of ten cents.{I like that there is never a choice about whether it gets done, just who does it and what the cost is…like in real life.} When they get to a dollar, they set money aside for tithing and for savings. The rest is there to spend or save for a big purchase. I have heard that this is adapted from Love & Logic.

I really liked this idea and felt Owen, my five year old, would respond well to it. Up to this point I thought he should just do chores because he is a part of our family. I found that that system became the mom nagging system, bribing system, and then mom doing it for him system if all else failed… or him getting punished for not doing chores which is not very encouraging. I think it is nice to have motivation for him to do chores and it begins to teach money management on a small scale. It also puts the responsibility for the chores on his shoulders much more.

So we began the chore system yesterday when school started. His five chores are… if you are wondering:
morning chores {brush teeth, make bed, get dressed, and clear own breakfast dishes}
homework {he has it daily during the week now! weird…I can’t believe it}
clean up toys {we do a big clean right before school or before dinner, he chooses his room or downstairs to clean}
dinner chore {everyone in the family rolls ourchore die}
night time chores {bathe, brush teeth, pajamas, and be helpful during scriptures and prayer}
and an extra chore on Mondays which is our cleaning day or if he asks to do one to earn extra money

Remember he is only five, so I listed the chores as pictures to help him out. It also keeps things short and sweet.

We only require maid service fees for all chores except for the optional one, nighttime chores, and homework {he obviously cannot delegate that one}. If he doesn’t complete those chores he just doesn’t get rewarded.

This system of course inspired me to make this fun chart…so here is the how-to for making the CHART:

Materials…aside from the obvious:

Metal Flashing: I bought the GALVANIZED aluminum flashing at Lowe’s {sorry I took a picture of the Spanish side …ha ha}. It must be galvanized or magnets will not stick. They come in packs of 10 for $2.00 and are 5×7 inches.

The frames are from the Dollar store. Honk’s in my case.

The glass tiles are from the Dollar Tree.

After you have your materials…

Paint 5×7 frames.
Discard glass.
Hot glue flashing to frame backing.
Reassemble frame.
Apply Vinyl. My friend Christieis really good at custom design and helping your ideas come to fruition – like she did with this project, is very reasonably priced {you know if I think it is a good price it is : ) }, and she ships. Her company name is Vinyl Talks. Thanks again Christie!

Make glass tile magnets. I just printed off some images from Word and from the internet and cut them out.

I applied them to the back of the glass tiles with mod podge.
Let it dry.
Hot glued a magnet on the back and that’s it!

Very simple.

Reid, my youngest, who is just a few weeks shy of 2 had to have one too. Whatever big brother has, little brother does too. So, I made one for him with two optional chores and room to grow.

As a Mom I am already loving it. Instead of nagging I just remind him that he has a  choice of doing it and getting paid, or paying me to do it.  So far he has chosen to do it himself…ah…bliss. It is already working.