Cleaning When My Butt is Draggin' & The Kids Think I Am a Dragon

Here at Noisy Cottage, we have two divisions when it comes to the whole chore thing- the LGIDGC ("Let's Get It Done- Go Chores!") and the CTJCT ("Chores?!? That's Just Crazy Talk)--this last can also be known as WYTAW ("What'ch You Talkin' About Willis?).

So, we decided that enough was enough and though we do have a chores chart that is on a daily rotation using magnets, we have found that the most effective way to inspire and motivate is to make it a game.- Isn't that always the way?

We make tickets with pictures and words that encompass a particular chore like "Bed" means making your bed and "Toys" means picking your toys up and putting them away, etc.

The children come to which ever parent (or if you have older motivated children) who is in charge of the tickets that day and each child is handed a chore ticket. They then run to do the chore on the ticket as soon as they can and return it to exchange it for the next ticket. When they are all done, they get a Golden Ticket.

You can imbue the Golden Ticket with whatever power you wish-- it may mean that they get extra story time that night or maybe some extra time playing a game or maybe something even bigger. In our family, movies are a rarity and video games are non-existent so it is more along the lines of marathon games of Settlers of Catan or Clue or even an hour of an audio book.

If it is a big chore day- like today- then we got to have gluten free brownies with vanilla ice cream on top so the Golden Ticket was much sought after.

I want to be sure to mention that each child has their own set of chore tickets and their own
Golden Ticket so there isn't competition to get the only Golden Ticket since everyone has one of their own to strive for. Even my 13 yr old son enjoys this though he prefers me to write the word for the chore and not draw a picture. He also likes his Golden Ticket to be imbued with things like a card game played with just his dad and I or being able to go on the next errand outing we have as an only child (sans sisters!).

To create your own Chore Game, draw out a picture of something that represents the chore you would like the child to do-- like a bed or a teddy bear or whatever and write the word that describes the chore underneath it (a picture of a book with "BOOK" written under it might mean to pick up books and put them all neatly on the bookshelf). If you are feeling particularly un-artistic at the moment, you can use the little clip art icons that you can print out on the computer. Then color them if you wish and cut them out into individual tickets. The trick of it is that the children can only get one ticket at a time (unless they are older and want a challenge by getting multiple tickets) and have them bring the ticket back once the chore is done to get the next one. This keeps them focused and it gives you the opportunity to thank them for listening and doing the chore promptly. You could laminate the tickets or you could cover them in clear shipping tape which is like the "poor man's" lamination which I use quite a bit.

This is just a suggestion and over the years as we have used Handipoints, various chores charts and bribes and punishments and yada, yada, yada, this one method continually comes back as the most effective. Even as an adult, I find it easier to have one task to do at a time that I can cross off before moving to the next one, I just thought this would be a fun thing to share :-)

I wonder what it would look like if adults took this on and everyone had a deck of chore cards to use in their day....... What would your Golden Ticket be imbued with?......