Chore charts

Mrs. Busby asked that I do a blog about the chore charts we do for our boys. I got sick of making charts that were pretty specific, and as the kids grew bored, the charts would go to waste quickly. So Jon and I wanted to do something that was more permanent, but could also be adapted with the changes in the kids. Magnets are fun at our house, so we bought large baking pans that were magnetic. Then I bought craft paper and sprayed adhesive to make the paper stick. (I think adhesive is tricky and I still don't know how to use it well) I am so not crafty, and these charts are not well made, but hopefully they don't fall apart for at least a little while. I also don't own any kind of straight paper cutter, which is why I so wonderfully cut these bad boys with scissors. I can't cut a straight line to save my life. I should at least get the tools one day. Anyway, I just printed images off the internet to represent what it is I want to the boys to do. We "cheap" laminated them (packing tape on both sides) cut them out and then stuck an adhesive magnet on the back. When I took these pictures, the images were sharp and focused, but somehow transfering them to the blog undid that for some reason. Stupid blogs. I like that we can interchange the magnets and adapt to things the boys need to work on. Chase could not remember to make his bed worth his life, so once we made that a magnet, he seemed eager to do it so he could put the magnet up. We have specific chores that he must do everyday, and he gets paid a nickle for each chore. He has to brush teeth, make his bed, clean up toys, do homework, and unload the dishwasher. He can choose to do extra chores to make more money and we pay according to the chore. I have a vacuum and set the table magnet, but otherwise, they use the stars for anything else special they do. We keep the magnets on the bottom half and they move them up to the squares once they accomplish the chore.

Logan is my child who is hard to motivate to do anything. He does not ever change out of his pajamas so I have a t-shirt magnet to help remind him. He has to make his bed, brush teeth, pick up toys, and unload the silverware from the dishwasher. I also have an ABC magnet to encourage him want to do "learning"

We started having problems with the boys wanting to play the computer and watch tv all the time. Mostly Logan, since he's home all day. So now we limit the tv and computer time to a certain amount each day and they have to pay a nickle for each 15 minutes they use these things. The boys are motivated to do chores so they can earn money and in return they like to purchase tv and computer time...as well as anything else they would like to do with their money.

Now they know that once they buy their time, that's it.

So that is what we've done and it's worked decently so far. You can make magnet boards really cute and glue all types of fun things anywhere. I like simplicity, and given my lack of crafty ability, there's less things to fall off. hee hee.