Job Cards...

I've had several people ask me to put up a blog post about our new found way to do chores that works and gives the children an opportunity to serve others and earn money at the same time.

We call it "Pick a card, any card" here... I have no idea what else you could label it as... ask your kids, they'll know! :)

I made a list of all the rooms/areas in the house, and then other jobs that I wanted done (dust, wash windows, feed dogs, etc.) and wrote each one on a separate index card. I then made envelopes out of construction paper of the child's choosing and put their names on them and also made a larger envelope for myself. This was so that I could see who had what job, and so I could know what I had to do. Then I sat down with the three big girls and explained to them what was to happen with each card. I still have to tell them occasionally, but we've been doing it about two weeks now, and they pretty well know.






































Each morning, after I've had my coffee, each of the three big girls picks three cards at random. They cannot see what they are choosing until after they've picked. I read all of them out loud so everyone knows what jobs are to be done by whom, and then they have an opportunity to trade with each other. I help them figure out what order they want to do the jobs and I lay out their cards in that order under their envelopes. As they finish a job, they put the card in their envelope.

After they have completed their three cards, then they are allowed to pick one of my cards (the leftover ones) if they want to and do it for a quarter. It's not much money, but they have the opportunity for 7 extra jobs/day, so that would add up to us paying out 1.75/day if they did all of my jobs. We've averaged about a quarter/day for them.

At the end of the day, before supper, I'll check their envelopes and mentally go over what those rooms looked like the last time I was in there. If someone hasn't done something properly, they get a do-over. If they still don't do it to their abilities, they have to pay me a quarter for having to do their job. So far we haven't had this crop up.... I pretty much expect Jayden (7) to do just about as good of a job as I do, Grace (5.5) is given a LITTLE leeway, but not too much, and Julianna (3.5) pretty much has to do her best at this point... working diligently and not complaining.

As of right now, Evie does not pick a card... she'd just eat it. But she does shadow me when I'm doing my jobs and she helps (put the toy in the box, put this in the garbage, take this to Jayden, etc.) so I consider her in training. I can see her picking a card herself by the time she's two.

My house has not been this clean since we moved in 4.5 years ago! It's so nice to not be concerned about someone dropping by, or having to run around like a mad-woman if we are having out of town guests.