Chores can be Fun!

At least Bailey thinks so! She's been helping do little things around the house for a while now, but it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that we made her official chore chart.

These aren't any major tasks, and most of them were things she was doing any way (picking up her toys and putting her dirty clothes in her hamper), but she thinks her chore chart is the coolest thing. She loves the fact that she gets to feed the dog. Every morning she asks if it's time to go check his food bowl, and in the beginning anyone who came to the house had to watch her feed him.

I think the reason we didn't do a chore chart ealier was because we weren't sure about the whole reward aspect of weekly chores. I knew I didn't want to give her money or any certain reward on a weekly basis, because I didn't want her to expect a prize just for helping out. Which is one of the reasons I included the phrase "How I Help My Family" on the chart. We explained to her that as a family we have to work together, and that includes working together around the house. What we finally decided to do about the reward was just randomly get her a prize when she's doing a good job. We told her she would never know when exactly she might get something, so she always had to make sure to keep up with her chores. So far she's never once asked when she would be getting something. We've gotten her two new coloring books for her good work and she was beyond thrilled to get them.

About the chart: I googled "chore charts" to get some ideas on what to include and how I wanted to make it. I mixed a little of what I already had in mind with some of the ideas I found online. I created the chart in Microsoft Publisher, printed it out and then took it to the UPS store to get it laminated.

Here she was after her first week of completing all her chores. She was so proud of herself! And I am so proud of how well she has done too!