Keeping Up with The Joneses: Chores, Part II

In honor of Katie Anne's new dedication to working around the house (and to inspire her to take her bath before bed without a battle), I got her a new chore chart. You may remember that I made her a chore chart myself last year. However, it has not held up well under repeated use... the Velcro dots are not sticking as well, and the laminate is pulling loose in places. So, I saw this cute and simple chore chart at Hobby Lobby, and it had a lot of the "chores" I needed to encourage Katie Anne to work on - taking a bath, brushing her own teeth, and making her bed. Paired with some of the tons of little incentive stickers I've acquired as a teacher, I thought this little chart would be a perfect fit.

She was so totally excited when I brought it home a little over a week ago, and she's been very motivated to fill it up. It hasn't helped us get every chore done every day ... there's been a few days where we've skipped a bath or haven't exactly met the "Be Happy" goal - and making her bed in the morning was a bit hard for her. But, it has definitely been a big helper - she loves to earn her stickers, and just reminding her about the sticker chart can help motivate her to hop on in the shower or improve her attitude if she's feeling surly.

However, making the bed was still a problem after a week of working on the chart. I blame part of this on all of us... I don't really have time before work between helping Katie Anne potty, get dressed, and fixing her hair to help her make her bed, she's not really motivated to do it independently without encouragement or a reminder, and Daddy doesn't put a high priority on bed making himself. So, she only earned stickers on Saturday and Sunday for making her bed during the first week.

This problem brought about two changes - one was my idea and one was Katie Anne's. First, I decided to ignore the days of the week on the chart and just let her earn her way across on the stickers. She'd already earned the Saturday and Sunday stickers, and I didn't see a way for her to make her bed on the weekdays until I get out of school for the summer. I thought she could at least earn two stickers a weekend in this area until she filled up her chart. (She gets to pick out any treat she wants from the dollar store when she fills up her chart, by the way.)

Katie Anne's idea works even better than mine. When it was time to take a nap on Sunday, she got the brilliant idea to sleep on top of her blanket so that she wouldn't mess up the bed she'd already made. So, she got out her big fluffy blanket and napped under it. When bedtime came, she just decided to keep the good idea going and sleep on top of her covers at night, too! As she said, "Now all I have to do is put on my pillows and sit up my animals, and my bed is all made!" So, she's quickly earning those "Make My Bed" stickers with her smart thinking!

Here are some pictures of her new improved style of bed making this morning! *Obviously, as you can see in the background, we need to make "Putting My Books Back On My Bookshelf Neatly After Reading" an extra area on the chart. :)

Straightening up her Dora pillow... she had already put her fluffy blanket away while I was getting the camera. The little pink and green blanket you see is her cuddle blanket, and it actually counts more as an animal or baby... and so must sit up near the pillows like the animals or babies. Peach, the mouse KA is holding, is the ultimate loved stuffed animal, and she can't even put him down long enough to make the bed. :)