The kids have been asking for an allowance or at the very least, a way to make some money. WF had previously had an allowance that was tied to chores (above and beyond the regular things that he has to do as a part of the family), but was having trouble earning it and keeping up on it, so we let it go. I was browsing around the internet and saw some ideas for chore charts that I liked. I decided to make one, with extra chores and price value on each one. Some of them were chore sticks, that you pull out of a jar but I liked the magnetic ones, since our front door is metal and I don't need more stuff to sit somewhere.
I went to Michael's and picked up some large glass rocks (in the floral section) and some large magnets.
Then I took some card stock I had left over from old scrapbooking projects and traced each rock. Something to note on this step is that each rock is shaped slightly differently so each circle needs to be traced individually. When you cut them out, cut very slightly inside the pencil line, so that it doesn't show on magnet. I came up with a list of several chores that the kid could easily do and assigned them a monetary value. The price varied depending on the amount of work required to complete the job or the gross factor of the job. For example, vacuuming the family room is worth $1 because it requires the person to pick up all the toys on the floor and put them away first. Changing the litter box is also $1 because it is gross. I'm pretty cheap when it comes to labor, so make your own call on the values :) After I wrote it, I traced it in black Sharpie and then hot glued it to the flat side of the rock.
After the hot glue was dry, I flipped it over and glued the magnet to the back
Wash, rinse repeat for the other 16 chores I figured out and the kids now have a way to earn money, that they are currently very excited about. I'm not holding my breath on that lasting very long, but for now I have a little cheap labor. :)
Currently, they pull one off the middle and put it on their side to complete (magnetic letters denote whose side is whose). At the end of the day, they get paid for the chores they completed correctly. The operative word being correctly, because no money changes hands for halfway done work. They have to do their "family" chores, stuff like keeping their rooms clean, putting away their laundry, cleaning up after themselves, etc, before they can do the money earning chores. If I do a chore, because it needs done, they lose the chance to that chore until the next time it needs to be done. Some chores need done every day, like the dishes, but some are only once or twice a week, like mopping the bathroom floor.
I like the list posts. I have 1000 things bouncing around in my head to blog about but none of them ever get fleshed out into real posts. So you all get pictures and lists :)
Ms Thang's face is better. Thanks all for the concern. It is scabbed over but not looking so raw and painful. She did ask to wear her sunglasses to the park so no one would see it.
We had a playdate at the park. I left feeling kind of icky. It made me sad.
At the park, we ran into J and his mom. I chatted with her for a bit while the boys played. They did a great job not being brats!
After the park we went to Mejier to buy The Boy a new pair of sandles because his broke. I wasn't going to do it since it is the end of summer and he could just make do with his flip flops and crocs, but since we are going on vacation next week, I decided to go ahead. Neither of his other shoes are good for walking or for moving rides. He needed something that would stay on his feet.
I like the new Kid Rock Song "All Summer Long"
I also think it is a little bit awesome that he Boycotts iTunes. Not that anything is wrong with iTunes but he has a valid point about record companies.
My fruit leather has partially failed. The strawberry, 24 hours later, was still almost totally liquid and there were little fuzzy blossoms on it tonight :( the cherry and blueberry look like they are almost done and nothing fuzzy on them. Not something I will likely try again.
I feel a little bit bad that I bailed on my conversation with Rogers last night, telling her I was going to bed because I was tired. I always read while I floss before bed and I got sucked in, hard core last night. Instead of going to bed because I was exhausted, I stayed up reading until after 1, so that I could finish the book. Sorry Rogers :(
My house is really dirty. We have no plans tomorrow so we are going to stay home and clean it up.
Ms Thang doesn't want to go to preschool. She says "they will oppress me at that school, if you make me go, I will be oppressed" I'm fairly certain she means "depress", however it is really funny to think about "the man" keeping her down while at school LOL. Anything school related stresses her out right now.
We have taken The Boy to get hit with a Jesus stick (for you Lost fans out there, that is a reference to Charlie's conversation with Mr. Echo about his "Jesus stick" having blood on it in season 2). We go to the First Christian Church on a fairly regular basis to play at their FANTASTIC indoor playground. For months, they have had signs up, promoting vacation bible school. They all show science-y stuff and TB was enthralled. He begged to be allowed to go so I signed them both up for it. It started Sunday, which is a dumb day to start VBS, but whatever. We missed day one because of the afformentioned dumb day but I went ahead to take them last night. After her day (no nap, busted face, etc), when she begged me not to make her go, I decided not to push it. Turned out to be a good thing since when I stopped in her room to tell her teachers that she wouldn't be coming after all, I saw a little boy that we know in there that she has a "personality conflict" with (which is a nice way of saying he is a bully and she doesn't let him get away with any crap and he whines and cries about it). TB loves VBS and asks every day if he will be allowed to go back the next day. He is gonna be upset when he finds out it is only a week long.
We got caught in the crazy ass downpour that hit town while we were picking TB up from VBS. It was raining so hard I could barely see. It looked like they were evacuating the classes when we got there. I ran back out to get the van to pull up under the over hang to get everyone loaded. The water, although it didn't look that deep, was to the middle of my calf. Too bad I wore my leather sandles out there :(
Personally, I'm opposed to being hit with a Jesus stick but I found that out for myself and my kids deserve the same chance. He can decide if he wants to do something more with it as he gets older. I will absolutely take hm to church, should he choose that route.
Speaking of school, Tb has such different interests from me, it just boggles my mind. I'm all about books and reading and English (which could explain why a large portion of my friends are English majors) and he is so into science and little math. He is forever asking what numbers added together are and has started talking about subtraction. Heaven help me when he gets much older. I could barely pass basic algebra and had to take remeidial math in college (which I never did pass, preschool teachers really only have to be able to count to 10 so it isn't that big of a deal LOL). There is no way I'll be able to help him at all once he is past the ad subtract multiply and divide stage.
The Boy has decided to start doing chores again. For the last half of the school year, he had chores that he got paid a dollar a day to do. We had a good routine but once school got out, it all went to hell! He didn't do any the entire month of June and now most of July. Then suddenly, out of the blue, he promised Ms Thang he would buy her a Barbie doll. When pressed on the subject, he said that he wanted to buy her one because she deserved it for being good. News to me, but ok. I told him he needed to get back on doing his chores so he could earn some money to fulfill his promise. He started by putting away all his laundry yesterday. Today was crazy busy (park, Meijer, McDonalds, rest, pool, VBS, dinner, bed) so he didn't have time to vacuum, but I'm going to make him earn it tomorrow! :)
