The job chart

I just got this finished for Natalie. I am excited, and so is she. It has taken me way too long to realize that she is by far old enough to really start helping out. And I need the help. Plus, I am excited to use this to teach her about responsibility and money management. Across the top are the things that she needs to do every day. I laminated everything so she will mark off the boxes with a dry erase marker. (By the way, a laminator is a very fun toy. I got myself one with Christmas money. I had no idea they were so cheap! I think it was only $20.) Her jobs are: homework, practice piano, clean bedroom, more school practice, daily job, brush teeth, read scriptures, and say prayers. The more school practice category is for me to help her work on additional school type stuff. For example, I noticed she needs some practice writing numbers and I want to start doing addition and subtraction flash cards with her. Stuff like that. Then she has a daily job that will change every day, depending on what I need her to do. I put three Velcro circles on the bottom of the chart and Velcro on the back of all of her potential daily jobs. That way I can put up to three jobs on the bottom of the chart for her to do each day and I can rotate them as needed. Most days I will only give her one job. But she might do three jobs on days like Saturday. Also, if she does all of the Daily Jobs for the week, she will get paid $1. The money is not tied in with the other jobs along the top of the chart--those are just expected. The money is only for doing the jobs along the bottom all week. I am excited about the money tie in for a couple of reasons:

1)We can teach her on a personal level about tithing.

2)We can teach her that when you work hard and do a good job, you get paid for it. That is how the real world works. I would like her to learn that before she is actually out in the real world. Same goes for this next one...

3)We can teach her how to manage money. Having worked at a bank right next to a college campus, it was scary to see how many young adults have no idea how money works. And yes, you could add many, many adults into that category too. Just look around at our economy and all of its 0% interest financing on things like TVs and couches... Natalie has started seeing things (like press on nail stickers) at the store that she wants me to get her. Instead, I talked to her about how she can earn money and use it how she wants. She can buy small things when she first gets her money, or she can save it up to buy bigger fun things. After getting her dollar from the tooth fairy the other day, she wanted to go to the dollar store to pick something out. I explained the concept of saving to her and what she could buy later if she waited. She was very excited and told me she wanted to save her dollar. I was a little worried that she would still want to go spend her dollar right away. And I would not have stopped her. But I was very proud when, on her own, she chose to save the dollar and was excited to do it.

So we will see how the job chart works out. I think it will be good for everyone.