Kids Corner - 100 Day Challenge

If you have elementary school aged children you can probably sing the entire theme song to Phineas and Ferb... "there's a 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it..."  Here in the north east, we still have school for a few more days and there is only 77 days of summer vacation. 

With summer vacation nearing and our chore charts getting looked at less each day, I decided we needed a little motivation, enter the 100 Day Challenge!  My girls have been doing fairly well with their chores on the charts I made a while back.  Even though they earn an allowance each week of $5 ($2 goes into savings, $2 goes into their wallet for their spending and $1 goes to church), keeping them motivated has gotten a little hard.  Which means I'm yelling about the things that need to be done and they aren't helping each other get their chores done.

What is the 100 Day Challenge?  Well, for the next 100 days, the girls have to do their chores in order to earn a sticker on the chart.  One sticker, which means, they have to work together to make sure both of their chore lists are done without fighting about it.  They also have to work with their brother and teach him to do some of the picking up, making it fun.  And finally, the main floor of the house has to be mom approved before we leave the house or they go to bed!

I was impressed when the girls decided the first step to getting their brother to help, was to teach him to respect that they've done the work and he shouldn't dump out all the toys they just picked up.  JuneBug had him follow her around while she picked up the toys and showed him that she was working hard.

What does 100 stickers get them?  Instead of their normal allowance they will be working towards earning something they really want.  For Tasha, it's a DS system.  For O-man, it's a monkey Pillow Pet (he's the only one without one).  JuneBug is still thinking of what she wants to earn.

Vacations don't mean a break in the challenge.  Whenever we are away from home and get out of our routines, it takes us weeks to get back on track.  This year when we are on vacation, the same chores will have to be done, we'll just take the chart with us.

Here is our chart:

We are only two days into it, so we've got a long way to go.  I drew the blocks and the girls did the rest.  They are very proud of it.  Now I just have to find a good place to hang it where we will constantly see it.

Peace be with you,