The Chore Store
Lots of things come to mind when I say the word "chore." It is not my favorite word to use, but it is what came to the top of my head in the moment. Responsibilities probably would have been better, but for now we will stick with "chore." Its also easier to say and has a good ring to it.
Why we chose to do a Chore Store: we want our children to know how to do simple and complex tasks in their everyday lives. Have I felt I hindered them too much over the years, yes probably.. but here we are trying to redeem the actions less taken. In all honesty I think often of their childhood end goal, and this is one of them.
The System We Use
After discovering this from another family on IG, we instantly fell in love, and thought we would give it a try.
First thing we did was order Garmin watches for each girl, we chose different ones because of their ages, but they defiantly have the same concept.
Our 10 yr old received this one. https://amzn.to/3ezFKCP
Our 5 yr old has this one. https://amzn.to/3eAYWQU
We love the simplicity of these watches. The girls specifically love the app where they can play a game for earning their daily 60+ minute movement activity.
As parents, we loved the coin option. These coins are connected to the chores they do, and those coins get added to their watches. Our girls are visual learners, and when they see those coins go up on their watches you better believe they love it! Did I mention you don't have to charge them!?
Their Chores
Every Family is and will be different for what chores your children will do. For us, we stuck with mostly simple, but also some complex things. Some examples are they are expected to make their beds, put any dirty laundry in basket, get dressed, and brush teeth before they leave for school in mornings. With that chore they earn 3 coins. We have other things like unload and load dishwasher, vacuum, clean bathrooms, clean up livingroom etc.. etc.. Our 9yr old will do more complex ones than our 5yr old of course, but she is good help and I will reward her for her efforts. The joy is that we can alter the chores as we go, and do things that best fit our family's wants and needs for each season we are in.
Redeeming Their Coins
Our family "cashes" in their coins at the beginning of each month (on the 1st or 2nd). Here we bring out the actual Chore Store, and with their coins they are able to "buy" fun things. We repurposed a simple 6-drawer plastic bin for this, and we filled it with 5-80 coin options. Anything from dollar tree stickers and puzzles to dress-up outfits and gift cards to fun places. We decided to offer the 80 coin option simply because we know they will work hard for them, and so far it has proven to be effective and they always go for those big items first. We went with a very relaxed idea on what the value of each coin would be, but decided on a standard 4 coins= $1. There has been some fluctuation of course, because we can do that, and so can you!
It is worth it
As a working mom outside the home, I was struggling to "do it all." It has been worth rewarding them for their hard work and help they have offered over the last couple months. I knew it was something we needed to get a grasp on, but we could never find a good system. We have tried a few different chore chart ideas, but nothing ever stuck like this one has proven itself so far. Like I said, we will alter as we go to fit their needs and ours. Overall I am super excited for this to continue on!
I hope you can find some help through this post, and maybe try it out as well!
Love to hear if you do :)
xo-Shantel
