Rockin' the chores

MangyCat is an old friend I used to work with about ten years ago. I love that I'm back in the same town with her, even though our schedules don't allow a lot of time together. She has a girl a bit younger than JT and a boy a few years younger than her girl.

She recently came up with a great idea that combines chores, money, treats, and TV time that I enthusiastically stole.

Her method is simple:

Each kid can earn 1 token by doing any of the following:

* Read for 15 minutes
* Do a specified chore
* Complete 4 educational worksheets

If they work well or read together, they can EACH earn a token for the SAME chore or reading time.

They can trade in 1 token for:

* 30 minutes of TV
* 25 cents
* 1 tally-mark toward buying How to Train Your Dragon on DVD (60 required)

(Stolen from her blog.)

Because JT is older, I modified it slightly--for one thing, we went to Hobby Lobby and bought rocks instead of poker chips. Not that there's anything wrong with poker chips. We just didn't happen to have any, and I wanted something we could display. We just started the program today, so I expect it will go through several transformations.

Ways to earn a rock:
- Half hour of reading
- Finish one subject of homework for the day
- One designated chore (clean room, vacuum, pick up poop...)
- Morning chores complete: feed/water dog, make bed, have a clean desk--WITHOUT BEING REMINDED!

Ways to spend a rock:
- Fifty cents
- Half hour of TV
- One X-Box game

He can also lose rocks:
- Too many chore reminders
- Too much whining about above

The rocks come out of the horse pitcher and into his vase. Day one: one rock earned for reading; one rock earned for chores. One rock spent on X-Box; one rock lost for whining.

As Fezzik said to Inigo, "I hope it works."