Just thought I would give you a little update on how our summer chore chart went....
I LOVED IT! Now did my children do every single chore? No. My older children who worked full time this summer were not home much and did very little around here. My younger children did quite a bit and even picked up some of the older kids chores on occasion. We started off the beginning of the summer great! The first two weeks the kids pretty much did all they had to do. Then the summer camps came and they feel out of habit. They had made some money, Which the younger ones thought it was alot, and the momentum slowed way down. The older kids told me they make more working why should i have to do chores here...You know how that whole thing goes. So why did I love it?
Well first of all it held everyone accountable. My older kids were alwasy complaing that they were doing everything whikle the younger ones did nothing but got everything. We proved who really was pulling there weight and helping out. So no more arguments on that topic is a huge score for mom.
Secondly when it came to do that back to school shopping everyone had there amount of money they had saved, some very little, and there was no arguments shopping. When they ran out of money they were done. Even my big shopper daughter that has to have everything and is good at getting her mom to cave in didn't argue in the least. She did have the most to spend, she did the most, made a lits of must have's for herself and got it all so she was happy. Mom and Dad were happy too! Third the budgeting of there money went great. they learned to wait for thing they really wanted. They learned what happens when you spend on a bunch of little things and how that adds up. It was great! I will say this wouldn't of worked if we hadn't stuck to the rules we made at the beginning of the summer. If my husband or I would of caved in on those bad days or gave them more money i the end so they could have all there wants, this wouldn't of worked. What's even better is that the kids loved it! I asked them how they felt about still continuing to do chores this way verses how we did them in the past and they all voted to continue. So we are still using the chores list with a dollar amount. THose that are up to doing the work they get the money for it. Those that don't get to stay home with me every friday and saturday night seeing how they don't have movie money.
I love when I try something new and it works!
If you want to check out my original post about this, check it out... getting-ready-for-summer
Keeping it Simple
Kate