Do you see that beaming little face down there?

This little cub of mine bought himself a toy!

Last week, we visited our local Kid to Kid (a secondhand thrift store specifically for children’s products). Archer feasted his eyes upon this bulky, bright object sitting at the clearance table. Luckily for him, it cost 50 cents! Unluckily for him, he didn’t have 50 cents.

Enter our job charts, which we had also started this last week.

(Just ignore the PIG sty on top of the fridge there. Minimalism is a process.)

I introduced this chart to the kids for family night last Tuesday. With a bunch of new changes coming up this fall, we needed to get in the habit of regular chores first. The kiddos (ages 6, 4 & 2) didn’t understand it right away. Once we got started however, they caught on pretty quick!

Their “Morning” chore involves 3 things: Get dressed, make bed, & brush teeth. Thanks to Taylor, they’ve been doing this routine all summer, so that was an easy check off. Their “Dinner” chore is whatever needs to be done in the kitchen after dinner. Taylor is in charge of this part 🙂

The “Zone” and “Junior” jobs were a bit more of an adjustment to add to our afternoon routine. These jobs rotate weekly between all the kids.

Each kid is only expected to do what’s reasonable within their skill set. For Arrow, cleaning the upstairs bath means to remove clothing / towels, put away bath toys, and take out the small garbage can. For Archer, cleaning the upstairs bath is removing clothing / towels, and putting away the bath toys. For Sander, it’s putting away the bath toys and taking out his dirty laundry. (I try to keep the time limit of a job related to their age. Arrow’s attention span is a little longer than 6 minutes, but Archer and Sander need to keep it short and sweet!)

My top priority here is to help them adjust to the routine. As they age and adjust into the regular habit of cleaning, then the jobs will increase in difficulty. But for now, they just develop their grit muscle. (There’s a really great ted talk on grit by Angela Duckworth that explains what I mean!)

Now, for the fun chore (at least for me ): Money Chore! In the great debate about allowances, we’ve decided to pay our children based on the work that goes “above and beyond” expectations. Everyone contributes to the home that we live in. However, I will happily pay them a quarter to wipe down arbitrary scuffs on the wall or spraying down their outdoor play house.

To prevent coming up with money job ideas every day, I drew up a suggestion list.

And sure enough, Archer took right away to wiping the bathroom mirror (with water) and hosing down the playhouse. A couple days later, he had earned his 50 cents to earn that snazzy toy!

Good job buddy!!