A chore system that really works!

                                                                        

I didn't want to jinks my chore system by posted about how great it was. But now that it's been working successfully for over a year, I have to share.

  

Throughout the week the boys can earn "terrific tickets" these are small replicas of dollar bills with their faces on them. I keep it all in the kitchen where the boys will regularly see it. I made a little pocket with their picture above where the Terrific tickets can be put as the boys earn them. That way they can easily see how much they have so far. They earn the tickets by doing their regular chores and can earn extra with a list of jobs needed around the house.   

 

At the end of the week we have a family movie night. The person who has earned the most tickets that week gets to pick out the movie. Which is a great bonus but the most annticipated part of the movie night is something I call "The Chore Store". This is the place they can spend their hard earned tickets. I sell things like...

a cup of popcorn for 2 tickets, a brownie for 3, fake tattoos for 1. I will also have toys and Target dollar bin items for sale too. They each take turns spending their money at the chore store. After their purchases we sit down to watch the movie and enjoy the prizes of their hard earned money. They boys take so much pride in earning and spending their money. We always like to do a movie night with the kids anyway so this just takes to to another level of fun.

 

In the past I used to have the boys earn real money to buy what they wanted but it didn't work out for several reasons..... 

1. I almost never have cash on me

2. They would lose their cash

3. If they could keep track of their cash I would have to drive them to Target to spend their money every week (it has to be a weekly thing or else they just lose the concept, you can't go to long between work and reward)

4. They would always want something that they didn't have enough money for and would feel disapointed.

5. My presence in Target means accidently spending 300 dollars on a bunch of stuff I didn't know I needed. Things like mustache shaped stickers and neon scarfs. 

So you can see why the conventional allowence and chore method did not work for me and why I'm so happy with our present method.

Happy parenting

Anne