CHORES!

So about a year ago I posted about an idea that I had to get my kids excited about chores. I had picked up these super cute little mail boxes from the Target dollar store. (They were actually on clearance when I picked them up so I got them for .50 a piece!)

 

The idea was that each kid has their own little mailbox. Each day I would select a few chores that they needed to do and put them in their mailbox. When they completed the chores they would put them back in mommy's mailbox to receive their rewards. Well last year was a whirlwind with the fire and moving so needless to say our little chore system slipped through the cracks. Plus, as the kids get older, they're able to take on more responsibility and the chores have changed quite a bit.

Well, a year later, I've decided to implement this idea again. It's a system I like to call: CHORE MAIL!

I came up with a list of chores that my kids need to do on a daily/weekly basis. Then, I created little "letters" that have the chores listed on them. I added a few pictures to help Gavin who can't quite read yet. 

Each chore is assigned a point value from 1 point to 5 points. Obviously, harder chores get more points. Here's a quick example of how I put my chore "letters" together:

I made a couple of the same chores so that Zoey and Gavin can work on the same chores at times, like putting their clothes away. I cut out each of the chores and matted them on a little piece of scrapbook paper (because scrapbook paper makes everything so much cuter) and then laminated them. I chose to laminate them to make them last longer and also because I wanted to be able to use a dry erase marker to put their initial on them. Sometimes when they turn their completed chores back into my mailbox I can't tell who did it. So by marking Zoey's with the letter Z and Gavin's with the letter G I can tell them apart. 

I felt a little guilty after I finished putting all the chores together, the kids have over 36 chores they are responsible for. They obviously wont be doing every single one of them every single day, but still! Oh well, more opportunities to earn rewards! And, speaking of rewards, because the chores are each assigned a point value, the kids have the opportunity to earn rewards.  Once they reach 100 points they get a reward.  I found these adorable little point tracker's that I customized for my kiddos to keep track of their points:

I got the point charts from http://www.alittletipsy.com/2011/02/printable-behavior-charts.html. I saved them as JPEG images and edited them with Paint.Net.

So we just started this back up today but I'm feeling really good about it. The kids were excited to check their mail boxes this morning and I was excited to have a little help with the house!