Yep, a chore chart for a toddler. You see my son loves money. That doesn’t sound good I know. Trust me, we’re not raising a money grubbing greedy little Wall Street type. He just likes to play with all those coins. We have one of those canisters where we drop our coins. One day, our son found it and thought it was the best toy ever. I sat next to him watching like a hawk so none of that dirty money ended up in his mouth and thereby in his throat. Immediately upon being done with said money we went to wash hands. Okay, so now that I’ve dispensed with my guilty admission and how I’m still a responsible Mommy, I can move on;)
So, yes, our son thinks money is kinda cool. The other day while attempting to tell my 3 year old that he needed to clean up his toys before playing something else, he decided to ignore me completely. Hmm, this is new. So I tried the game approach – who can pick it up the fastest – this usually works. He told me that I could pick it up the fastest. Umm, what? Now, I move on to serious Mom, “you’re not listening right now” (this is a big deal for some reason. I think because in pre-school we make a big deal about him listening), he says to me, “what?” me: “you need to pick up these toys before you play with something else”. Him: nothing. silence. turns back to me. Yes, he basically gave me the hand. This was a classic power struggle. I could easily have done the whole time out thing, but you’d be surprised how long he can last in timeout and I wanted the damn darn toys picked up. So, I said, “If you don’t listen and you don’t pick up your toys, you can’t earn any money.” Hmm, this peaked his interest. He knows what money is and he likes it, what pretell does “earn” mean? It worked. A few days before he had received a little bank from Wienerschnitzel (yes, yes, I know, but it’s my weakness. My child wouldn’t dain to eat there) and thought putting money in it was so cool. Now, come to find out there was a way he could EARN money to put in his bank – so cool. So, the toys were picked up and quarter was deposited in the bank.
I have since used this tactic only a few times. Each time, however, he wants the money immediately and I’ve started to explain to him that at the end of the week if he listens all week and picks up his toys and shares, he can earn money. I know that this is too much for a 3 year old to comprehend. He is only now learning days of the week, the concept of a week is completel foreign to him. But, he accepts what I say and cleans, so I keep saying it. Then, I realized, well this could be a learning experience on various different levels. If I were to create a simple little chart with those 3 things he needs to accomplish each day, and had it organized over the course of the week, and included stickers (glorious stickers), then maybe we could learn: the days of the week; responsibility (listening, cleaning up toys and sharing); and finally a little knowledge of money (differences between each coin) and saving. It’s just a start mind you, I don’t even have a monetary value in mind as to how much to give him for accomplishing these tasks, but I’m sure we’ll come up with something.
So, this is the ‘chore’ reward chart I created for K. It includes a page that you can print out on sticker paper and cut, or you can use a fun stamp for each day. It also includes a blank spot for you to add your own ‘chore’ for your own child. Enjoy!
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