Does that sound familiar? If so, keep reading!
You're home with your kids ALL day and they prolong their chores to last All. Day. Long! If you're anything like me, you've tried everything from bribing to threatening to just sitting them down and explaining why it's better to just get them done in the morning so they'll have the rest of the day to play and do what they want to do! Then they look at you like your nuts, right?!
Well, I saw this idea somewhere online and I thought I'd give it a try. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm excited to see how it goes. I am offering the pdf I created for free just in case anyone else wants to give it a try!
So, this is what it is and how it will work...I made up these punch cards with 30 days on them. The one I saw online only had 10 punches and I thought my kids were old enough to do 30 days...at least.
My kids are 10, 13, and 15 years old. Anyway, so I told them that in order to get a punch on their card they needed to get everything on their checklist finished by noon AND I need to pass off their work as good, quality work. Sometimes they rush through and "forget" to do something, like clean the toilet or sweep the floor or make their bed. Your kids don't do that do they? No? Just mine? Yeah right! Haha! If you have no problems with your kids doing their chores, good job and please leave a comment telling me how you did it. However, those of us who have a hard time getting their kids to be consistent with their chores/checklist, let's try this, shall we?!
Anyway, when they get all 30 punches, I will take them out to lunch. If they don't get their checklist finished by noon they still have to finish the checklist to get their screen time, so there's still an incentive to get it done. I've just added another incentive to get it done faster.
What do you do to get your kids to get their chores done in a timely manner?
Update: I tried this with my kids last summer and it worked great for two of them for a while. I finally
came to the conclusion that for some kids they just have to learn this concept "the hard way". I remember
when my oldest was in elementary school, he had a hard time turning his work, already finished, in, and also my second oldest would read all. the. time. but he would never get credit in school because he would not
write down his hours. It was so frustrating to watch them both doing this. Finally when they were in sixth and eighth grade they finally learned this lesson after doing a bunch of work that they fell behind with in one weekend. In high school they have earned A's and B's. I knew they could do it, they just needed to figure it out for themselves.
That's how this concept of doing what you NEED to get done first before play is learned. We, as parents, want what's best for our kids, we don't them going through what we had to to learn our lessons. If they would only listen and learn from our experiences, right?! But alas, that's life. Some kids are blessed to be obedient and learn from their parents, but some have to learn from their own experiences. So my suggestion is do what works and BE CONSISTENT! That's the key right there!
What have you done , or are doing, to help your kids understand this principle?
I'd love to know!
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