As predicted, my son zeroed in to the burger chart first thing in the morning, like a 90-yo and the bathroom. (Who am I kidding, how old am I?)Anyway, he checked out all the chores and examined the "ingredients," though I stumped him with the carrots. :) Before I was out of my shower, he had 3 of them stacked. Which was quite humorous, actually, because the 3 morning chores evidently are mayonaise, mustard and pickles. Yum!
And, yes, HE MADE HIS BED! Without me saying a thing! All day was like that. Even up until bedtime, which he did without any fuss.
Best of all, he was very pleased with himself! And had fun doing it. The last thing he did before he went to bed was to "unstack" his burger so it would be ready for him in the morning.
Sigh....Life is good. Now, for the story "between the lines..."
We had a bit of snow last night, so school called a late start, which meant it started an hour late. Though I would have liked to kill the hour in bed sleeping, my son wanted to talk about the chore chart. He needed a little more details on how it "worked." Like what was his reward if he did them all. But he also wanted to tell me that I missed a couple of chores! Can you believe it??
He wanted me to ADD TWO CHORES THAT I MISSED!! Well, okay!
So I had to make up a few more ingredients. I did onions and bacon and had them ready for him to check out when he got home. Which is exactly what he did.
He fed the dog early, read his 1/2 hour without any argument, even read a few extra minutes, and ran upstairs at bedtime.... Heavenly. Simply heavenly.
So I'm going to be adding another aspect to the chart. I wanted to be able to keep track of the days that he did all of his chores. At the end of the week, that will help determine his allowance. He and I talked, and we decided it would be fun to have a matching serving of french fries. Everyday he completes the whole burger, he'll get a french fry. He'll also get a french fry for everything "extra-ordinary" that he does, like if he demonstrates a random act of kindness. The more fries, the bigger the allowance.
And it's already been worth EVERY DIME it costs me!
I haven't made the french fries yet because I have to get some "golden brown" felt. And also because my son wants to help me make them. Bonus! I'll post a follow-up on how that goes.
I'll offer two modifications on the construction of the burger. First, the hot glue doesn't work well on the magnets, as I feared. I think I'll stitch another layer of felt to the back, enclosing the magnet on both sides. Second, I think the tab displaying the chore should be the same color as the ingredient, so that it blends in. Other than that, it has worked splendidly well.
So my recommendation on this project is: two thumbs up! Give it a try.
And be sure to check out the endless list of inspirational ideas at my home page childmade.com.
