Chore Charts

It feels good to not have so much going on at once.  It feels good to get caught up on sleep, to not have to be running around all over the place and actually finish up the million little projects around the house.  Now with the kids out of school, I've made it clear that I will not be doing all the work around here by myself while everyone else gets to play all day.  I wasn't very motivated to make yet another chart on the computer and have the kids put stickers on each chore and have them lose interest after a day or two. So I adopted an idea for chores off of Pinterest by GingerSnapCrafts.com.

Each child picks a color.  Paint one-half of the Popsicle or craft stick and write the chore on the other.  If your sticks are big enough, a small mason jar works perfectly but I had these little containers that worked better with Popsicle sticks.

Each child gets a container.

 Then I put them in a larger container to keep them all together.  A pretty basket would work great, too.

Once the child completes the chore, the Popsicle stick gets turned upside down.  When all the colors are showing, he/she is free to go play.

I added a container for weekly chores such as clean bedroom, clean bathroom, sort and put away laundry, etc. Those sticks stay in the weekly container and once those sticks are color-side up, they stay that way until the week is done unless that chore needs done again before the week is up.

I added a "Good Deeds" container with golden sticks.  If a child chooses to do a good deed, she gets to move that stick color-side up to her container.  Good deeds are chores such as: help fold laundry, help make dinner, play a game with your sister, clean downstairs bathroom, pick up dog poop, etc.

Each child also has the option to do a chore for someone else.  It's considered a good deed and they can move that stick to their own container, color-side up. 

We have not really decided any incentives for these chore sticks.  Right now, their incentives are being able to go play and not be pestered by Mom, but ideas were being kicked around that if all the chores are done each day for the week, we'll go out for ice cream or do something fun.

We are on day 2 and so far, it's been very successful.  I would love ideas on how to keep the kids motivated to want to do their chores.  We can't always afford to give allowances but when the kids need something or want to do something special, they usually get it because they've done chores.  Any suggestions?