Work Pays: Lessons in work and money for kids

Getting young ones to learn how to do chores is not always easy. Teaching them how to handle money is even harder. At my house, I have combined the two lessons to teach my daughters the value of money and working for things they want. 

The chore chart, AKA Get a Job

In our kitchen, I have set up a “Command Center” that had the weekly calendar with everyone’s schedules. Included on this chart are the daily chores for each person, with the exception of me. I do chores every day. Even their daddy has chores. For every chore done, a kiddo can earn money. Each chore can earn my kiddos different amounts of money. It is super important to give them chores they can actually do. My twins are 6, so their chores range from making beds to feeding the animals to helping with laundry and dishes. The harder the chore, the more money it is worth. What I love about our chore chart is that the kids are learning responsibility for the house, cleaning up after themselves, and it helps me.

My girls were eager to complete tasks on their chore chart for the first week, but after that, it wasn’t as exciting because they didn’t see the purpose. What were they getting out of this, other than their annoying mother nagging them? This is where the next step came in.

Setting a Goal, Make a Budget

The girls wanted to go to a certain toy store where they could stuff their own stuffed animal, buy it all kinds of accessories, give it a birth certificate, stuff it into an awkward box that they don’t want to be the one to carry around the mall … you probably figured out where I mean by now. And while the store is about the experience and how special it is, I have an issue with a teddy bear that cost $45 and the kids won’t really play with it all that much.

But the girls were insistent that they needed these bears. That was the goal. They wanted those bears, they needed to earn them through earning money from chores. And when the top pay for all their chores is $5 a week, it really doesn’t take that long to earn the bear. However, I felt bad. They had to earn half the money for the bear and I would pay the other half. For a first goal, I felt like $45 was a lot to hold on to for 6 year old little girls.

Reaching the Goal:

We were reinvigorated and ready to reach the goal!  We started our first day strong. But…. I realized some of the chores required me to have done my chores first.  Oops. Carolyn couldn’t sweep the floor if my teacher bags, recycling, laundry baskets, and other what-nots weren’t put up. We modified the plan a little – help me pick up and then I will pay double. Maybe day two would have been better? Not really, I hadn’t finished washing laundry for them to fold and put up laundry. So they got to learn how to sort the laundry as well. Payment went up. Day three? Chores only work well when mommy is home to make sure things are getting done. (I work the high school theater program so I have late nights during rehearsals). You can see, it wasn’t perfect. It didn’t get off to a perfect start, but we didn’t give up.

Once a week the girls had to count their money. This helped in teaching money values and simply math problems. The girls had to keep a running count of how much they had and how much they needed still. We set it up on a poster board and it somewhat resembled a check book ledger. So while I was getting help with cleaning, we were also learning math.

When the girls had finally reached their goal after 6 weeks (they didn’t complete all their chores each week so it took longer), they were excited to tell the workers at the store that they were using their own money to buy the bears. I had some funny looks given to me when the girls explained they had to earn it by doing chores, but I didn’t care. My girls where genuinely proud that they had earned the money.

Keeping it up

On the way home from getting the bears – with clothes, shoes, roller skates, leash, hair bows – I asked the girls what the next goal for their money would be. They were stumped. They didn’t have anything they wanted since we had just celebrated Christmas and they were given way more than they needed. I felt the pressure of having to find another idea so we didn’t lose momentum in doing chores. Thankfully, my daughters are pretty cleaver and did the thinking for me. Carolyn suggested they save up to buy more science experiment kits. We got home from the store and they each looked at the chore chart and went to their rooms to clean!

They do not always get their chores done, but neither do I.