Chore Tokens

Ah, Chores... it's that never ending battle (usually with yourself) of whether or not it's worth it that day to get your kids to do their chores.  I'm sure this is the case in most homes, we tend to change our Chore routine, rewards, plan of attack, etc, every so often.  We went with the sticker reward chart for a long time, which the kids liked... for a while.  Stickers can only be so exciting... especially when baby sister LOVES stickers and takes them all off the chart.

We have tried a few other ideas but nothing seems to really get the kids motivated.  So I decided to revamp our chore routine.  This is not a brand new idea, but for us, parts of it are new. What is most exciting for me, is that the kids LOVE this idea, which of course is bonus for me.
We have a designated "Computer Day" (Wednesday) and "Wii Day" (Saturday).  Generally they would get 30-60 minutes to play, 30 if they weren't 100% in to all their duties for the week and 60 if they went above and beyond.  They usually landed somewhere around 40 to 45 minutes.  There were always extra ways to earn minutes, and of course ways to lose minutes.  It was hard to keep track after a while... in came the new plan.

Tokens.  They HAVE to do 3 Saturday Chores drawn randomly from the Chore Bucket, and for each chore completed they earn 2 minutes (up to 5 minutes for the nasty chores like Cleaning the Toilet) of Electronic Entertainment of their choice (come designated days). They also have a chance to earn more minutes by doing more token chores.  Then of course there are there Daily Morning and Evening Duties that they are required to take care of.

They also earn minutes by doing these (I haven't created the tokens for these yet... I ran out, I have Popsicle sticks so I may use those instead), however, not for each individual duty, but rather if they finish all the "Morning Duties" they will get a token/popsicle stick with a morning picture on it, well that's the idea anyway.  They are more often than not really good at taking care of these simple morning and evening routines so they always get at least 28 minutes of brain dead time, once a week.

 The Chore Can in on on fridge at the moment, not sure for now where it will end up, but this will do for the time being.   I covered a pint size paint can with scrapbooking paper that I've had since 2002 (does anyone scrap book anymore??) and then mod podged over it for durability.  I love mod podge.  The "tokens" are 1.5" wooden discs that Joann sells, I had these left over from another project so I used them.  Just printed off clipart onto slightly smaller circles that I created in Microsoft Publisher and glued them on using Tacky Glue.  Then Mod Podged over them as well.

 I haven't finished making the kids cans to put their tokens into once their chore is finished, but they are all really excited about it.  Honestly, so am I, how easy it will be to change the reward when something entices them more.  This would be so easy to adapt to any child of any age, video games, TV, allowance, time with friends, earn up to a certain amount and get a sleepover or late night, Trip to the children's museum, anyway, you get the idea, the possibilities are endless.
With our children computer games are the key right now... to prove that, I woke up to this sign this morning on the table...

and a PERFECTLY picked up and straightened house.  Denver didn't forget any of the rooms.  It is Wednesday... think she was trying to earn extra minutes today?? ;o)
We also have a Dinner Duties chart that the kids follow, I considered adding minutes for these, but these are established so well already that I didn't want them to think it was an option ;o)