I’m a believer in kids doing chores. Nothing that is above their developmental level, but we’re a family and we all help out.
As the oldest, Monkey Girl has the most chores, but she also has a chore chart where she gets stickers for doing her chores and then gets an allowance at the end of the week for whatever she did. It’s not a flat $5 a week, as my feeling is, in real life, you only get paid for the work you do. So, she has the opportunity to earn up to $8 a week if she does every chore, every day. However, let’s be honest…some days, she forgets to make her bed, so no sticker, so no .25 for that chore. Get it?
Anyway, my favorite chore of hers is emptying the dishwasher. When the green light is on, showing that the dishes are clean and dry, she is responsible for emptying it all out. However, although she’s quite tall for her age, she’s still too short to reach all the shelves in the cabinets. So, the deal we have is that she’ll take the dishes out and organize them on the counter, and I’ll come along later to put them away.
Why is this my favorite chore of hers? Well, because I never know exactly what I’m going to find in the kitchen after she’s unloaded the dishwasher, but I always know it’s going to make me laugh. One day, the dishes were all arranged on the counter island into a big smiley face.
Yesterday afternoon, this is what I found:
Oh boy, do I love that girl.
Isn’t that what Forest Gump said? “Life is like a box of chocolates–you never know what you’re going to find.”
Comment by Dad — August 22, 2009 @ 2:01 pm |
That is just too cute! She must lay awake all night thinking of new ways to amuse you. 🙂
Comment by Debbie — August 23, 2009 @ 10:53 am |
I am so using this idea. Usually, my girls just hand them to me and I put them away. But I like the idea that they could place them onto the counter. There’s more independence. We’ve started a new “team chore” reward system here. Socks! We’ve made it a competitive sport. Miranda matches and the older kids fold. We keep track of how many they do. We do this while watching a family show. We tally up their work and for every 100 prs, they get to pick from a variety of prizes. I’ll let you know how it works. We’re just starting it. Might have to raise or lower the amounts or change the rules depending on how assertive they get. I don’t want sock fights. 😀
Comment by Sara — August 24, 2009 @ 7:50 pm |
I love the team socks idea! Monkey Girl and Monkey in the Middle could easily team up for that. It would definitely solve some of my laundry issues! 🙂
Comment by abozza — August 24, 2009 @ 8:32 pm |