Saturday, January 28, 2006

Casting lots for chores

Yeah Yeah....i'm that odd.
I had the kids cast lots to do chores and earn x-box time today. I was trying to think of a creative way to get them to help with chores without the ususal problems of nobody wanting to do the "hard stuff". We do not do allowance, frankly, we can not afford to pay them for work, but believe that if they live here, have beds, clothes and food, that they should be productive members of the household. We also do not feel they should play x-box all day. So, here, you have to do chores to earn x-box time.

Now that I have explained that, let me tell you what I did today. I offered the children the chance to roll the dice and get a chore and then roll the dice again and see how much time they could earn. Just to make it fun, one of the things they could earn was -30 mintues of x-box time. ...in other words, do the chore and LOSE x-box time. But on the cool end of things, they could also roll and get UNLIMITED x-box time this visit to the house and the next (they are my step-sons, we get them every other weekend).

The chores, assorted stuff like take down the Christmas lights from outside, clean out the van, put away the clean dishes....nothing HORRIBLE, just stuff that needs to be done.

SO, next time you are trying to find a fun way to get the kids to do something around the house, grab the dice from your games and cast a lot or two.

3 comments:

TamWill said...

Great idea! I have Twins and one of them likes playstation and the other does not care about it.

Christian does alot of chores without my asking, he makes his bed, feeds the puppy, takes out the trash and much more.

The other Twin Caleb is not productive, he adores playstation 2 and does not care about chores.

So, just the other day, I told Christian that I was going to give him $2.00 a week, thinking that would motivate Caleb...but so far no luck! Hmm?

Looks like your plan is working for you though!

Vanessa said...

I love your idea on earning Xbox time - I may have to use that on SoldierJ - LOL. But, I like the dice even better!!! Very creative :)

lachen said...

See, now I think you just might be onto something! I think that casting lots and earning priviledges by behavior and chores is sheer parenting brilliance. Keep it up!!