Getting Organized

Well, it's a new year.   And that usually makes me think about getting more organized.  We've been trying some new things in our house to make things run a little smoother.  We'll see how it goes.  I have no qualms about changing it later if it doesn't work.

Here is Anna with our new behavior chart.  This is borrowed from the kid's school.  They start on green each day, each kid has a clip, and they move up or down throughout the day as their behavior dictates.  If they get on orange or red they have to do a timeout or lose a privilege right away.  If they are in the positive they can earn a reward at the end of the day.  We still do the counting (1 and 2 are a warning - yellow, 3 is a timeout - orange) and this goes along with that.

This is more for the older kids, but Grant likes to move his clip up as well.

 

New chore charts.  I have seen these around the internet and made some of my own with some free printables and dollar store cookie sheets.  I have little magnets (not pictured) with each of their jobs for the day and the move them from "To Do" to "Done" as they accomplish them.  Every day they have chores like, Tidy Living Room, Clean Room, Homework, Read 20 Minutes.  They also have weekly jobs like wiping the bathroom counter, vacuuming etc.  I usually add one of these special chores to their boards each day.  For Matthew and Anna that is.  Grant's jobs are pretty much clean up your toys, help clean the living room, put away shoes.  And I can change the chore magnets as needed.

I saw one person complain about this particular free printable because she objected to the word "Chore" being used.  I have no problem with calling this a "Chore" chart.  I mean, let's call a spade a spade.  You have to do work in life.  Chore doesn't have to be a dirty word.

I wrote these two pages up and put them on the fridge because I was tired of answering the question five times a day (mostly I get asked "What can I eat?)  Anna objected because she said she can't read yet, but she is learning so she sounds it out as best she can.  I think it gives her ideas of what to eat for a snack if nothing else.  Scott laughed when he first saw that I actually printed this out and put it on the fridge.  :)

And this is probably just redundant since we have another behavior chart, but this is the "caught being good" jar.   When I see them doing a kind deed or if they help me out with something they get to put a pebble of their particular color in the jar.  When we fill up the jar to a certain point, we get to go on a fun outing somewhere to be determined.

I just got tired of the kids asking me if they could get anything (like candy or "screen time") for the good deeds they would do for me and each other.  I want them to know I appreciate it and its important to do good deeds,  but that you don't just do something kind 'cause you get something out of it.  So not sure this really conveys that totally, but I think it's a step in the right direction.  And they really like earning pebbles to put in there.  Also this is only a positive jar.  No pebbles ever come out for any reason.

And finally, Gup Bucks.  We've been trying some different allowance things recently and Matthew and Anna (the only ones earning actual money) are always losing the money we give them.  So, instead we've started paying them in family money.  We have a chart that shows 1 Gup Buck is equivalent to $1, 30 minutes screen time, one toy from my bin of dollar store goodies or 4 candies.  Anna is very motivated by candies while Matthew likes real money or screen time.  We'll see how this works out.  I don't plan to ever actually give them real money for this.  But they can pay me in Gup Bucks for something they want at the store and I'll buy it.   That way they are not responsible for any actual cash.  When they are older we can try the real money again.

For doing all his jobs and having good behavior this week, Matthew earned one Gup Buck today - his first one.  He asked for a Johnny Gup Buck.  :)  It's already burning a hole in his pocket.  They can earn a max of their age # of dollars each month, if all the chores are done and behavior is good.   So far no one is hitting the max, but we've just started this so we'll see.  I'm hoping that we can learn a little about responsibility with some of these new systems.  And I reserve the right to change or abandon them as needed.  :)  But this is what we're trying for now.