Monday, March 29, 2010

Great FHE!

Tonight we had a great Family Home Evening lesson.
It served MANY purposes so I thought I would share.
We are trying to teach Tyler about chores and responsibility so I made up a chart to go along with our lesson. Tyler is responsible for a few things around the house.
  • Making his bed every day
  • Making sure all the clothes are picked up off the floor in his room
  • Brushing his teeth
  • Picking up the toys and books at the end of the day
  • Setting the table for dinner
  • Taking a bath (because he doesn't like to any more)
  • Brushing his teeth (again)
Now I know you are thinking, isn't this what every kid is suppose to do....well, yes they are, however we seem to struggle with these on a daily basis.

So here is how it works. We have 3 charts.
A morning chart, evening chart, and cross off chart.
Tyler is responsible for doing these chores on his own. At the end of the day, we sit down together and look at his "TO DO" charts and see what has been done. If he completed the task, he gets an "X" if he didn't it is left blank. At the end of the week we count up how many times he completed his Chores. Then on the cross off chart we right in that number. Here is where the fun begins. At the end of the week, Tyler gets a penny for every chore he completed. I know you are thinking we are bribing him, and to an extent we are, however, we also get the opportunity to teach him about:
TITHING
SAVING MONEY FOR HIS MISSION
SPENDING MONEY ON THINGS HE WANTS NOW OR FOR A LATER DAY!

I know you are thinking we are geniuses, but really it came to us as we were explaining his charts to him. He seemed really EXCITED and wanted the money I was using as an example. He also wanted to give some of his money to help build temples. Luckily for me, I had a tithing slip on hand and was able to show him what he could use his money for.

It turned out to be a great lesson. I will let you know how things go. Hopefully I will be able to report it is working and we are all happy.

This is the morning chart.
After the chore is completed, he moves the picture to the completed side so he can see what he has done and what needs to be finished.


the evening chart


cross off chart. This chart was set up for 2 weeks at a time but we have decided to do it on a weekly basis. I will be making another chart.

Tyler has the potential to make 46 cents a week.
$1.84 a month.
And we decided if he completes each task weekly he can get an extra 5 cents...
If my calculations are correct, he can make a whopping total of
$2.19 a month.
He is going to be one rich boy.

Hopefully this is helping to teach him responsibility, how to work, discipline and how to budget money.

So my question to everyone out there is:

What do you do to help teach your children about these things?

3 comments:

Juliana said...

That looks like a great idea! Ü I sooo have wanted to do this sort of thing and it always dwindles away. Maybe I will give your idea a try! Ü Thanks for sharing!

Stef said...

Wow! I am impressed. And don't ask me what I do. Mostly yelling...no wait... I have tried so many thing...but charts are definately the best for cleaning. My kids have to do EXTRA work for money, because I am a tight wad...sad,but true. Looks like you are on the right track. Let me know if it works.

Sal Casley said...

That chart seems to be a great idea to make kids brush their teeth before going to sleep. What do you think of giving 'em some sort of a reward for completing their charts for, let's say, a month?

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