A structured summer

Blah! Just looking at those words together makes me ill. However, that is what we are going to have - somewhat. After picking my children's dirty clothes off the floor for the hundredth time this weekend, and putting their dishes in the sink....again, and refereeing yet another argument, I decided early Sunday that this was not how I wanted our summer to go. "Help me Lord" was the first thing I did, followed by a google of "children's chore chart" on the internet. I found a great chart on DLTK that you can customize or use one of theirs. I came up with 8 things for each of my boys to do each day. These things are not hard - they are normal, every day things that my husband and I want our children to do automatically without us nagging them to do. Things like make your bed, put your dirty clothes in the hamper, pick up your toys, brush your teeth - things like that. I put them on a chart - one for each child (I used pictures for my almost 4 year old) with SpongeBob on the top that they could color and started to come up with consequences. Here's where it gets a little tricky. My husband and I sat down and brainstormed what would be the best way to encourage them to do these, not discourage them. For my oldest, it was money. My husband hesitate at first using money for him, as he didn't want everything tied to the almighty dollar, but this is the one thing that motivates my oldest son so we went with it. For every day he goes having checked every item off the list, he gets 50 cents. Not doing them is not an option. Doing it with an attitude will cost him 25 cents each occurrence. Other things like fighting with is brother will also cost him. Extra things he does without being asked he will get paid extra. These are not things we will continue to pay him for after summer, as I am a firm believer you don't get paid to be a part of a family. But to get him started and to begin some structure for what we expect of him in the fall we decided to go this route. My youngest will work from a prize box. When his list is checked off, he gets to go to the prize box each day. This box will be filled with stickers, lollipops, crayons, etc. Nothing expensive but fun for him nonetheless. We won't take the prize box away, his punishment for disobeying will be time out or a spanking if necessary. My husband and I sat down with the boys last night and I explained it to them. They agreed with it and seemed excited. The one thing we emphasized to them was that they were not to ask me to do anything - pool, ride bikes, play outside, etc. - until the things that needed to be done get done. Period. First thing this morning my son made his bed (on the list). My youngest went to the potty without my prompting him or nagging him (also on the list and a HUGE problem in our house). We went to the pool for 3 hours, I gave them a bath, they ate lunch and did a workbook page (on the list too!) without any complaining. My boys were so excited to have things checked off - they even asked me to check in different colored pens. I can honestly say this has been the best day we've had in months. They are getting along and encouraging each other in their chores and to help me. It has been a wonderful, wonderful day! I actually am looking forward to tomorrow!