Guest Post: Kids Chores and Allowance

June 18, 2009 By 6 Comments

Today’s guest post is from Jenny, mom of 4-year-old twins. She has created a great system to help her girls learn about chores and allowance that she shared with me after my request last month on how to approach this concept with my kids.

When my twins turned four, I started a chore/allowance system that is working really well. I bought a wooden plaque at Lowe’s and painted it to match the playroom. I screwed in two rows of 6 tiny cup hooks. Each week my girls get to draw out the job “cards” and hang on the hooks (they each only chose 5, because the 6th job every day, every week is playroom clean-up). For the cards, I picked up free laminate samples at Lowe’s. They are stiff and sturdy unlike cardboard or cardstock. Each card has a clip art graphic glued on it to represent the chore:

You’ll notice that there are two colors of cards. The daily chores are white cards, and the weekly chores are black. I brainstormed tasks a 4-year-old could accomplish. The Daily Chores are:
  • Playroom clean-up (this mommy does not pick up ANY toys)
  • Food helper (assists with meal prep getting items out of fridge and pantry and putting things back while I am cooking/baking)
  • Recycling helper (takes all cans, bottles, jars and newspapers to the recycling bins in the garage)
  • Feed/water dogs
  • Table setter (puts on silverware, napkins, condiments before each meal)
  • Meal clean-up (wipes down placemats and booster seats and sweeps under table/chairs with whisk broom after each meal. They both hate this chore, but do it.)
  • Get mail (everyone loves this chore)
And the Weekly Chores are:
  • Plant watering (household plants- may become a daily chore now that we’ve planted tomatoes/herbs)
  • Coupon cutting (yes, my kids cut out all of the coupons- great for scissor skills. Plus that’s how I have taught them to read the values of money)
  • Laundry helper (bring all dirty clothes from bedrooms to the laundry room, brings down weekly drycleaning, matches all socks, and folds all washcloths, dish towels, rags, etc.)
  • Empty Garbage Cans (empty all trash cans in all bathrooms, offices, bedrooms)
When the girls do all of their chores each day it really is a help to my workload! In exchange for their chores, each girl gets $1.50 per week (paid in coins). Each girl has a small organizer with 3 drawers. The drawers are labeled “Spend”, “Save”, and “Share.” Each week they have to put some amount of the $1.50 in each drawer. They can divide up their earnings however they want, but they have to put some money in each drawer.

One daughter learned an important lesson yesterday that you have to save (even within your spend drawer) to get what you want. She wants a stuffed rabbit from Build-A-Bear Workshop. It will cost about $18 with no outfits. She has $7.63. It will be end of summer before she can afford a naked rabbit. She was really disappointed when we counted yesterday because the $7.63 looked like a lot to her. We have talked a lot about how if you spend all of your spending money right away on small things, its gone and you won’t have it to save up and buy something bigger. Both girls plan to pool their share money to help pets and people with no homes. So far our system is working well!

What systems are you using with your kids this summer to encourage their help around the house?
Filed Under: Family Finance, Kids

Comments

  1. Deborah Graff says:
    June 18, 2009 at 8:52 pm

    I'm impressed with Jenny's plan! I know it takes a lot of energy on Mom's part to make a system like this work.

    I guess that's why I have no system. I'm too lazy. :(

    Reply
  2. lvlc says:
    June 19, 2009 at 7:32 pm

    Love this post since it comes very handy for me right now!
    Today my son brought money for the first time to his summer camp to buy a something and is starting to realize that he can do that… It helps a lot the guidelines on how they can earn their money, though I will not pay him for doing what he is supposed to do anyway! :)

    Reply
  3. Martha says:
    June 21, 2009 at 4:09 am

    my child is alittle older, but I think I'm going to try this with her.

    Reply
  4. Your Frugal Friend, Niki says:
    June 22, 2009 at 2:59 am

    Wow, look at you! This is amazing. I have my 4 year old doing up to 3 chores nowadays: putting dirty laundry in hamper/help put clean clothes away, pick up toys, set table for dinner. For that he gets $1 a week to save up or spend at the dollar store if he chooses. He is getting very particular about choosing what to spend his big dollar on.

    :)

    Reply
  5. Lizzie @ Lizzie's Home says:
    June 27, 2009 at 3:07 am

    This is so beautiful I want to cry, LOL. Discovered your blog after doing a Google search on chore charts. There I was, about to toss out random slips of paper with chores written on them, and suddenly now all I want to do is make chore cards!

    Awesome idea!

    Cheers,
    Lizzie

    Reply
  6. Anonymous says:
    September 2, 2009 at 11:59 pm

    I googled chore charts and this post came up! It is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for sharing a great idea!

    Reply

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