Want to skip to the free printable? Here you go 🙂
Once again, I’ve ripped another page out of my good friend Angela‘s parenting book. She doesn’t think so, but she’s a proper fountain of cool, fun parenting ideas, so I routinely imitate copy steal rip-off borrow ideas from her, and occasionally I get really brave and put my own spin on things. You know, so I feel original. Anyway.
A few months back, I “helped” some friends move [read: they left a whole bunch of stuff in the basement and I went shopping and took as much as would fit in the car], and it was then that I happened upon this HUGE box of green cardstock:
Trust me. It’s bigger than it looks.
And… it sat under my husband’s desk for [aherm] 3 months. I tell myself that it was waiting for me to devise a brilliant plan to put it to good use, but really I just had no idea what to do with it. XD Skip ahead a few months, and we find me again sitting around trying to think of a solution to a problem, only this time I’m trying to figure out how to wean my kids off of television, by making them do chores to earn those privileges.
Long story short, she was employing the time-honored tradition of a family store, whose currency was what she christened “family bucks.” Simple, inexpensive, easy to set up, positive for everybody = SOLD.
So I spent an afternoon hunting around my pantry and various hiding places for all the cool [read: yummy] things I’ve got stowed for special occasions. I’m pretty sure my husband and kids thought I was slightly nuts, especially when they saw that I was running back and forth from my bedroom, secretively carrying snack-type things. That, or they thought I was on my period.
Either way, this is what I came up with:
And here’s how it works:
Subject to change, of course, depending on my whim what works best for the family. And they can earn bonuses based on the special task assigned to each of them for the week/month – for example, my 2-year-old needs to work on not whining or fake crying, so each time I catch her not crying, she gets a buck. Are there a lot of bucks being handed out? For now… yes. But I figure that the amount over time will wane, especially as the novelty does, so I’m not too fussed. If it stops the whining and gets them working, I’m happy.
So far it’s been a big hit, the kids are still excited about their new responsibilities and associated rewards, and I’m happy that I’m getting cooperation, better behavior and a [slightly] tidier house out of it! Win win!
Which means a win for you too – I’m adding the “play money” template I made to my “Free Printables” library! You may now applaud.
I printed these on the green cardstock and they turned out great, despite my worries that the green would be too dark. See?
Have any of you ever tried anything like this? What have you found effective? At what ages did you start/stop and why?
Related links:
This Disorganized Life 
I haven’t had a need to try anything like this yet. My one kid is pretty good!
Also. Love your siggy (you changed it… Right?)
Sounds like a great idea. It’s similar to the system my sis-in-law and her boyfriend use with my nephew- he does things like chores and the like to earn “payments” (plastic coins when he was really little, and now they’re graduating to real money) which he can choose to turn in to them for what he wants. He can save them for a toy, or turn them in immediately for something cheaper like candy. It’s also helping him to understand that things aren’t free, which has resulted in him being much more well behaved in a store since he knows “payments” (either his or his parent’s) are required for a toy, and one doesn’t always have enough “payments”.
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