For a long time I have been pondering how to create a chore chart for my two-year-old daughter, Mara. Most of the printable charts I found relied on reading (which she obviously hasn't mastered yet!) and had more complex chores or a difficult format. I wanted something visual, tangible, changeable, and simple, something through which we could also teach her money principles (see Part 2).
This is the result of my pondering:
PART 1: THE CHORE CHART
:::Pocket Chart:::
I stumbled upon pocket charts (the green chart below) at Dollar Tree one day several months ago and bought several of them... then I went back and bought several more! My husband thought I was quite ridiculous to be so ecstatic about that find, but as a former teacher, I know the versatility of these charts! I used sticky tack to attach the pocket chart to the wall.
:::Chore Cards:::
I searched online for clip-art images related to the chore I wanted Mara to do or "help" me with. I copied the images to a word processing program and sized them so they would fit on about half of a 3x5 index card. Then I wrote (in complete sentences) the chore I wanted her to do and taped the picture to it. (I let her color them, but she lost interest, so some are just plain!). I couldn't find images I liked for a few of the chores so I just drew them freehand (note my best attempt at drawing a pot and our Vita-Mix on the "I help make food" card!). Now that it is summer time, I will be adding some more chores she can help with, like filling the bird feeder and helping in the garden. You can see all the cards below; however, because she normally does not use all of these in a week, I keep some of the lesser-used ones stacked together so there is only one column of cards.
:::"I Am A Good Helper" Cards:::
I cut other 3x5 index cards into 4 equal parts (making 4 helper cards out of each index card). On the back side of each one, I wrote, "I am a good helper!" and I let Mara pick a sticker to put on the other side. We made about 16 of these (4 index cards total).
:::Pocket holder for the "I Am A Good Helper" Cards:::
I put this pocket, which is just an index card folded in half (which makes the bottom of the pocket) and the sides are taped together, leaving an opening at the top. This creates a "pocket" to hold the cards. This is attached to the wall above the pocket chart -- out of my daughter's reach. :)
:::How to use the chore chart:::
Whenever she "helps" me with a task, I give Mara a "helper card" and she finds the appropriate chore card and puts her helper card beside it. At the end of the week, we take all her "I am a good helper!" cards out so she can earn her commission. Which leads us to Part 2...
PART 2: PAYING COMMISSION
:::Our Philosophy:::
In real life, one must work in order to get paid. We want to raise our children to work hard and earn their wages. Therefore, we do not believe in giving our children an allowance, a payment just for being our kids. There are some chores that they are expected to do just for being a member of the family and a resident of the household (and these are not paid), but there are other chores that they can do of their own free will and for which they can earn extra money. So, the only money Mara gets is what she earns through commission, which is represented on the chore chart.
:::The Three Jars:::
~Tithe~
We want our children to learn several important principles about money. The most important, as followers of Christ, is tithing. We practice giving a tenth ("tithe") of our income to our local church, and we want our children to learn the same principle. We have talked with her at a basic level about what tithing is and why God calls us to do it. So Mara has a jar (I used old plastic peanut containers) labeled "Tithe" and every week she puts some of her earnings in it. Then we put the coins in a special change purse to take to the Sunday worship service, and she empties the change into the offering plate. At first she was upset to put her money in there (and actually thought that she was supposed to take money from the offering plate to put in her change purse!) but she quickly adjusted to how it works. :) ~Save~
My husband and I have been blessed to learn Biblical and practical ways of handling money that help us eliminate our debt (including our mortgage!) and allow me to be a stay-at-home-mom on a small-church-pastor's salary. We want our children to learn the same principles about saving money and eliminating debt (ideally, never going into debt in the first place!) So, we have Mara put some of her hard-earned money into a "save" jar. We will later involve her in the process of depositing it in the bank and teach her about the importance of having a savings, as well as the value of saving to pay cash for big purchases.
~Spend~
This is the fun part for Mara. She, like many other toddlers, will sometimes throw fits if she can't get something she wants. We like to empower her by reminding her that she can spend her own money to get it (if she has enough!). Also, sometimes there are things we won't buy her, but she wants. For example, she owns nearly a dozen baby dolls, but she seems to always fall in love with another one when she sees it... but I don't want to buy her any more of them! When we were at a yard sale recently, she found another baby she just had to have, and I got her money out of my purse and told her if she really wanted the baby she could buy it with her own money. She looked at the dollar bill, looked at the baby, looked at the dollar bill again, took it from my hand, and handed it to the seller. And she has taken good care of the baby ever since. Mara is learning, in a small way, the opportunity-cost dilemma. Money is finite, and we all have to choose wisely how to spend it.
:::Pay Day!:::
At the end of the week, we take all the little "helper" cards she has earned and put them on the floor. For each one, she earns $.15 in nickels. By each card, we lay out three nickels. Then she takes them and puts one from each helper card in each jar until all the nickels are equally distributed into the jars.
You could use any amount of money you wish, but here is my reasoning behind the 15 cents: She is little, so she doesn't need a lot of money; however, I want her to learn the principles and be able to have some money to spend, and nickels add up much quicker than pennies. (When she gets older, we will increase this amount.) I also wanted an amount I could pay in equal coins (such as nickels) to put one in each of the three jars. (I know that technically a tithe should be one-tenth of her pay, but until she learns fractions and percentages, this is a much simpler way to teach her the principle of tithing.
Below you can see my cloth-diaper-clad-beauty Mara putting her money into the different jars. :)
I hope this post gives you some ideas for how you can teach your children the importance of hard work and the reward of earning money! Let me know if you have an modifications or suggestions that might be helpful to others!
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