Chores!!!

   

Chores! All I really want is CHORES! And in the morning it’s CHORES! Cause in the evening it’s CHORES!

Pixie has reached the ripe old age of 7 1/2 and Buggies just turned 6 (excuse me while I cry a river of “where the hell did the time go” tears). A few months ago, I started scheming the chore jar. Since they were in school, I didn’t want to push the whole “ya gotta do chores everyday thing.” 

It started with a gem jar that had 30 little blue gems in it. They each had their own and kept them safely in their room. If a “situation” arose where fighting, losing our kindness/manners, etc. happened; we took a gem. For each gem they lost, they had to pick two chores at random from the chore jar. It was up to the hubby and I to decide if they had earned their gem back. If at the end of the month, they still had 30 gems, they were allowed to choose one stick at random from the fun jar. 

As you will notice in the pictures, there are quite a few “fun” chores in the chore jar. Reading a book, turning on music and having a dance party, making a card for your sister, hugging mom/dad; these are all things they like to do.

 So, what gives, Jess? 

Sometimes the mere opportunity to change the activity that was causing a problem, to engage your brain in a new and different way, to move your body, can change your actual mental state. In addition, it wasn’t so bad pulling from the chore jar if you knew there were fun things in there too. 

After the month was up, the fun jar came into play. Oh by golly, Pixie counted down the days till she could pull from the fun jar. The reward of the fun jar made them so excited. Lots of counting of gems, losing count and starting over, and finally realizing they had all thirty. 

EVOLUTION:  Now that school is out for summer, the gem jars have somewhat disappeared. There is still the opportunity to lose gems and pull from the jar however, now all the chores in the jar must be completed each week. I’ve added a few more to the chore jar but each week, the girls and I divide the chores evenly and complete all the chores in one morning. If all the chores are completed, they can pull one stick from the fun jar each week (I don’t pull one…I treat myself to a Starbucks for good behavior 😉 ). We are only on our second week of summer so I can’t really tell you how well it is going, but I will keep ya posted! 

Here are the full pictures of the sticks: 

   
  

 

Comments