I just thought I'd log on (procrastinate grading a quiz) and post something that's been working well for Miss Emily. A few months ago, I was wanting to teach her how to pitch in and help with keeping our house clean, but I wanted to find a job that she was capable of doing correctly (I didn't want to have to go behind her and re-do the chore). After talking to my elementary school teaching mom of 4 SIL, I decided Emily's job would be unloading the silverware from the dishwasher. SIL suggested this because it also helps with learning to sort. I must say that Emily is an expert silverware unloader. She's actually better than her Daddy about getting things in the right spot ;-) I just put away the sharp knives, and she takes care of the rest.
When my mom was visiting us in Feb, I was concerned when Emily started asking her "Will you buy me _______" (fill in the blank with various princess accessories). I decided to talk to Emily about saving money to buy her own princess items. So I bought her a ballerina piggy bank and started paying her an allowance for doing her chore. I just give her 5-10 nickels and dimes (she thinks it's a lot of money since it's a lot of coins), and she happily deposits them in the ballerina piggy. She knows she is saving up to buy her very own Princess Aurora ensemble from WDW one day (hopefully summer 2010).
Since I pay her on Saturday, she always saves one dime to put in the collection at church. At first, she fought me on this because she wanted to save all of her "monies," but it's now routine for her to "save one to give to Jesus." I think that her giving one of her own dimes is teaching her more than us giving her a dollar to put in the plate. But sometimes we do that, too.
Anyway, I thought maybe some other moms are wondering about age-appropriate chores and if/when to give an allowance, so that's my take. I'd love to hear from other moms on this topic!
Pray for me that I'll get my grades done in time for report cards!!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
We give an allowance based on their age. Braden gets three dollars a week, Zane gets 6, and Bree soon to be $8. We decided to "help" them save for a big thing, so we deposit their allowance into a jar. This time they saved for a trampoline. They even contributed tooth fairy and birthday money. Jon said if they raised $100, he'd put forth the rest. If they get on orange light at school they lose a dollar.
We got tired of them taking money and spending it at dollar store or dollar aisle at target, and now we will pick a big thing: bike, or trip.... outside toy to save their allowance toward, so they can see how far their money can go if they save. And it's done wonders for Zane's behavior at school!
Hey Melissa!
I think your ideas are great! Cade also unloads the dishwasher utensils and is quite the expert at it. Plus he LOVES doing it,
which is a plus.
He has several other chores that he does around the house like...feed the dogs, make his bed, and serve as my "mop helper" another chore he LOVES to do. I wring the mop out and he goes to town in the kitchen and breakfast areas. Is it as perfect as I would have done it, NO, is it clean YES, and does it free up time for me to concentrate on the bathrooms while another area is being super scrubbed, YES!!! It's overall a win/win situation.
We use a credit system right now, instead of an allowance. He earns "credits" a.k.a. poker chips in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 when he completes his chores, shows specific positive behaviors and or attitudes, and follows our family rules. He "purchases" priviledges around the house everyday with his earned credits.
- buy a special drink (soft drink, hot chocolate, etc)
- wii time
- watch a DVD
- rent a movie at the video store
- computer game time
- kid's choice dinner night
- many, many others!
Or he can save them up to buy an item he's really wanting (we also assign them monetary value).
I think pitching in and learning HOW to contribute to a family is so important, we are equipping our children to be servant leaders in their own households one day soon!
HUGS!!!
P.S. Looking forward to tonight :)
Emily is always begging to rent movies, and I never thought of tying it to a reward system before. What a great idea, Becky--I will now be figuring out how Emily can earn a movie rental!
Great ideas from all. Melissa, Dave Ramsey would be extremely proud. Not sure if you've seen/read any of his stuff, but your thing sounds similar to ideas that he shares about money and kids.
I have been thinking about this since I chatted with you in person one day regarding Emily's chores. Thank you so much for posting. I am about to totally re-vamp our systems around here and the ideas here from you and the comments are super helpful. I love this kind of stuff!!
Post a Comment