Chore-ific!

I finally found out how to get my kids interested in doing their chores. When they get up in the morning, they start right in on their morning chores, and before bed, they are eager to check off all they had done during the day.

No, it is not some magic potion that I use on my kids. Nor is it a whip or paddle. It is a very simple to use online software program called myjobchart.com. Best of all, it is FREE!

You start off by entering your information as a parent then enter all your kids names and you can even add their pictures like I have done. Next, you can pick from a list of predefined chores or create your own to add to each of your kid's chore list.  You can specify that it is something to be done every day, or once a week, AM,PM or both, and how many points it is worth. There is also extra jobs that you can add that aren't part of your child's normal routine but can be done for extra points. I have put several things under this heading that are more difficult than their usual things, and are assigned more points.

After this step, you move on to assigning rewards for each child. As before, you can pick from predefined items or create your own. I asked my kids to write down what they would like as rewards and added the ones I thought were the most appropriate. There is an option to allow for your child to pick things for sale on retail websites if they acquire enough points. I haven't explored this option yet, but I am sure when my kids start accumulating points, they will want something more than "Game Time" or "Movie on School Night".

I believe that the key to this method is getting the appropriate rewards so that your child will be motivated but not too far out of reach.

I will post a follow-up to this in a week or so once they start "cashing in" their points.