A beautiful way to visually connect chores to allowance

Photo credit: Kelly Wickham

We all know this: what works for one family doesn't work for another. Such is the case with motivation systems, star charts, and other ways of tracking and rewarding chores.

Kelly Wickham (Mocha Momma) shared her friend's gorgeous system that solves three problems at the same time.

• It reminds kids about their household responsibilities
• It gives them a way to "check off" tasks as they finish them
• It makes a perfectly clear connection between the completion of chores and the reward (or earnings, as they should more accurately be called)

Be sure to read Kelly's post detailing this system and why it's working -- there's much more to this story.

Read the full post at Mocha Momma: Motivating Children to Do Chores

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Related: Allowance tips: what Parenthackers are doing

And: 40+ creative uses for wooden clothespins

More: Hacks about star charts and other reward systems

Comments

[Redkite]

I love this idea

[Asha Dornfest]

Me, too! Both my kids have good intentions about chores, but need help with the organizational skills to *remember* them and then *stay on track* till done.

By the way, if you don't want to connect chores to $, you can always put a prize (or a note that describes the prize) in the jar.

[Zed]

I don't like tying chores to money, but I LOVE the idea of a coupon for something fun to do with mom/dad. I keep looking for ways to communicate the fact that more hands make light work, and that if they get something done to contribute to the family, then that leaves more time for the parents to have fun with them.

This fits perfectly with that goal! i.e., "When I take care of that chore without mom using time and energy to ask me about it two dozen times, she has time to sit down and play "SET" with me / read our mom-son bookclub book / build the lego tower with me / go to the store to use my birthday gift card, etc.

This is brilliant.

[Louise]

I can't read the blog link -- it comes up as gibberish on my screen. I wonder if it's become corrupted or something?