Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Chore Chart for the Little Ones

Ever feel like your toddlers need to learn a thing or two about a hard days work??? I know, they are little, but sometimes (when you have more than one especially) you could really use their help around the house. I made this chore chart for my little Sadie who is 3 and I'm sure her sister will be using it soon!

How does it work? Well, first you'll want to get some images online or through clip art. I just googled "chore chart pictures" and found mine. I did my chart awhile ago and couldn't find the exact ones, but there are some great ones HERE and HERE. The idea is to give her many opportunities to do something helpful, when she does, she can put a star where it belongs and at the end of the week....we count up the stars. The more stars she gets, the better her reward.
Anyway, continuing on... I got a regular sheet of white card stock and measured out how many chores I wanted and for how many days. I colored my little pictures, cut them out, and glued them on each Chore space with words to label them.

I labeled the days of the week and the title of my Chart with the saying, "I will help my family" in the corner. I laminated the whole sheet (I did this at our local office store) and then got sticky-back velcro (from Wal-mart) to stick on every square.
I then cut out some little stars (although you can use any image you want!) and laminated them as well. I put the other side of the velcro on the back of the stars.

All the stars are in a baggy and when she chooses to do one, or does so when asked (not begged), she can get a star from the bag and put it where it goes on the chart! She loves it!! I hope it works out great for you too :D

One more thing! We wanted her rewards to not by monetary or all bribes of junk food, so we chose rewards that were perfect for our family.

**Need some reward ideas?**
ice cream night
you pick the movie
camp out in the living room
board game night
game night (Simon says or Duck, duck, goose)
family walk/bike ride
bake cookies with Mom
Jeep ride with Daddy

Monday, November 1, 2010

Is Halloween Over?

I don't know about any of you, but I really procrastinated this year! We were supposed to go Friday night to our church's Trunk or Treat, so I was sewing away Friday afternoon. My little Sadie wanted to be Belle--"IN THE BLUE DRESS"!
She actually went to the Trunk or Treat with no zipper on the back of her dress. It was held on with 4 safety pins. I amaze myself sometimes....luckily it was done for Halloween and she was happy.
As for my Kelsey, she went as Dorothy, and her Grandma had the costume in her dress up bin for the girls. Poor Kelsey was sick for the Trunk or Treat and she didn't want to stay in her costume on Halloween, so this is one of the only pics we have of her. I think we will have to dress her up again :D

Hope you had a great Halloween! It is one of my favorite holidays....nothing but family activities galore!