Hard Work Does Pay Off!!

Nathan and I have been talking lately about how Heidi and Jonah are old enough to start helping around the house.  There are things they have to do now, like pick up their toys and books, but we really wanted to start them on chores and help them learn how to make and manage money.  Professional people have all kinds of opinions on how to go about this.  We've taken bits and pieces from here and there and came up with a system I think will work well for us.  At least right now.  I'm sure it'll be ever changing as they grow older. But for now, we came up with four chores for each of them to do last week.  Every time they did a chore they got to put a sticker on their chart.  At the end of the week, they presented their chart to daddy.  For each sticker they had, they earned 1 quarter.  

Heidi's responsibilities:

1. Feed/water the cat

2. Make her bed

3. Match together her, Jonah's and Clara's socks when I'm folding their laundry

4. Put up the adult silverware

Jonah's responsibilities:

1. Feed the dogs

2. Make his bed

3. Put up the socks in their right drawers after Heidi matches them

4. Put up the kids silverware

They both love to help so it was no problem at all to get them to do all this with barely a reminder.  As soon as Nathan would get home, Jonah would run to him saying, "Oof-oof?" because he knew when daddy got home they would go feed the dogs.  He LOVED feeding the dogs.  The only thing Jonah was not at all enthusiastic about was making his bed.  He had no desire whatsoever.  Not even for a sticker.  Great.  Not a good sign, I don't think.  Since his mommy is not a good bed-making example, I didn't push him to do it.  Heidi, however, is very eager to please and loved to make her bed first thing when she woke up and then would come wake me up and would want me to go right then and see her made bed.  Talk about two ends of the spectrum!  They both were happy to do their other chores so it ended up working out.  We're all still new at this, so we'll just have to tweak it as we go.

Showing off their newly made chore charts
(forgive my artistry, or lack thereof)

Ready to cash them in!!

turning in their charts for daddy to inspect

Heidi getting paid for her hard work

Jonah getting paid for his hard work

So proud of themselves!!

They both got $3 for their efforts this week.  I'm very proud of them for having a good attitude and willingness to help around the house.  We'll be teaching them to divide their money between God, savings, and spending money.  Heidi has already decided that she wants to save up for a barbie doll she saw at Target.  She was all ready to take her three dollars and go get it!  Since the doll is $15, we'll be working on the "saving up" part of the idea. =)

I have to say, even though it was a bit more tedious showing them what to do and then waiting for them to do it at their pace instead of doing it faster myself, I really like the concept behind them doing the things that I normally have to do!!  I see a lot of potential for this!! Haha!!