Miracle Chore Chart (If you read one post this year, this should be the one)

I found this sticky white board at the supermarket.  It works extremely well and I can change it whenever I want

Tonight for Family Home Evening we went around telling each other what we loved/liked about one another.  Henry told me that he loved me because I go skiing with him and because I made a chore chart for him!  I couldn't have anticipated the effect this amazing little chart and system would have on my son.  He truly loves it and it works better than I could have imagined.  I got the idea from the parenting class I'm taking.  If you can take one of these classes, do it.  Don't be ashamed.  You don't have to be out of control to finally take a class.  

These are our poker chips.  The Black are 10 points, the blue are 5, the red and green are both 1point each. 

The whole idea behind this is this: Kids tend to feel entitled.  They have high expectations for being able to watch the shows they want to watch, play video games, eat special treats, have play dates, get McDonalds whenever mom is running late, and that's just the little kids.  Fast forward a few years and some kids all have laptop computers, ipods, ipads, bikes, scooters, endless designer clothes and activities galore.  And as one of my wealthy neighbors put it, "What do you get kids who have everything"(Talking about Christmas) Do they work for these amazing privileges? I can tell you that most do not.  I didn't grow up with opulence, but I hardly worked at all for what I did have.  Justin, on the other hand, worked a lot and it paid off big time. If my kids are going to grow up on a farm, they need to be able to work hard!

I bought him a little safe box to keep his chips in.  He loves locking and unlocking it to put his chips in

 This is a system that is kind of like Chuck-E-Cheese for ages 4 and up.  Your kids do a chore, they get a chip right away.  They earn enough points, they get to spend their points on things they want to do.  They save up some of their points for bigger weekly prizes and an even bigger monthly prize.  All of these things, except for new LEGOS which require insane amounts of chores to get, are things I allow my son to have anyway, but now he's just working for them.  I don't even have to remind him most days to get his chores done.  He just does them and he's going strong for 2 weeks now.  And in his words as he clutches his chips, "This is so much fun!!" In the chore column he has to do the first set of chores to be able to use any points.  He has the option to do more chores down below for more points and then there are the bedtime points at the bottom which he only gets if he does them without me asking him after I make the initial announcement that we're getting ready for bed.  The things that are hard for him to do or remember are worth more points.  Combing his hair is really hard, but he'll do it for 5 points!  Also, he is required to use his points for one daily and weekly prize.  He can't just save them up and not do anything fun all day long.  The last thing is that you have to give your kids chips for having a good attitude and you just have to do it at random without any set point value each time.  This way it inspires them to always do everything with a smile on their face just in case they earn an extra few points. 

This chart makes Henry Happy

Since this began, I have almost stopped having to parent Henry.  He's doing it all by himself.  He loves this system and so do I.  We've become even better friends and now that he's basically cleaning my whole house, we have more time to do fun stuff together and mom doesn't sit around all day long cleaning up messes and nagging him to get his chores done!  If any of you are having trouble getting your kids to do their chores, this is a great system that doesn't use candy, bribes, real money, and won't cost you a penny if you don't want it to.  If you want the official instructions I will scan them and email them to you. Let me know if it works for you!