Hi Parents!
Summer has arrived and I don’t know about you, but getting my kids to do their chores is even harder when the kids have checked out for the summer! So this summer I decided to get creative. Check out my Summer Chore Plan!
In getting organized for a successful summer, I decided to take another run at an app I tried for a bit and forgot about over the course of the school year, called ChoreMonster. It’s a great little app that your child can use to keep up with chores, earn prizes and ‘win’ monsters that like to clean way more than your children do!
First I downloaded ChoreMonster to all their respective tablets (Kindle Fires: Kids-Edition that Nanna gave them for Christmas). Then I downloaded ChoreMonster onto my tablet along with the parent app that goes with it, MotherShp.
I made a list of all those things I nag them about: Make Your Bed, Feed Your Puppy, Put Away Your Legos, etc. The list went on and on. The most time consuming part for me was also my favorite part, creating the chores themselves. When I was done I picked my top 6-10 chores for each of my three children.
When creating chores for each child, the app offers a number of chores to choose from, but also the option to personalize and create your own. In addition to being able to search google for pictures within the app, I was able to take a picture of our dog and use it on the chore ‘Feed Pet’.
After adding these to each of their individual profiles on ChoreMonster through the MotherShp app, I sat down with my husband and worked out a point system we were both happy with. We decided that each point was worth 10₵ and awarded points for each chore accordingly.
Then we talked about the prizes themselves. There were puppy toys, legos, craft kits, all kinds of things they had shown us over the past few months while we were out and about shopping.
I took the purchase price and translated that into points for them. If a reward was $20.00 the point value was 200. I am able to add whatever prizes they would like to their rewards, but they will still have to earn and save up for them. Especially the more expensive prizes.
We tried something similar during the school year, but what I have realized is that waiting so long between prizes makes the promise of reward feel distant. If it doesn’t feel close, it doesn’t feel as attainable and their momentum really stalls. I downloaded the app onto each of my kids’ tablets and set it all up in about 30 minutes. You can also log in to both ChoreMonster and MotherShp via their website if you’re rather your child checked off chores at the computer.
For us it has been a great success! When my youngest comes bounding into my room on a Saturday morning, in the wee hours of course, to announce proudly that after making his bed and checking it off on ChoreMonster he has enough points for the prize he’s been saving for, the smile on his face is worth it all! He was happy and proud that he made his bed and I didn’t have to nag at all.
I even included exercise on their ChoreMonster apps. They are active kids, but now they are getting rewarded for going above and beyond to get stronger and healthier!
Happy Crunchy Life!
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