I wanted to share a quick and easy, yet very practical and helpful, summer yard work idea. The Kids’ Summer Yard Work Earning Chart.
When is comes to summers around our home, we try really hard to keep our kids active and off of the media and minimize screen time as much as possible. We also try hard to make time and availability for fun, but along with the fun comes a great opportunity for working and earning (and helping to pay for a day at the pool or a summer day camp, etc.).
Last year, our children did extra projects and tasks around our home and picked out a summer day camp in a topic that interested them. But in order to go, they had to “earn” their way with those extra tasks specifically earmarked for that activity.
Well this year we are engaging in a different activity to earn extra money to use on whatever extra activities they desire.
So we created a super simple, yard work chart. I did not complicate this, make a cutesy printable or overthink – I had the idea and had it together in 15 minutes! And so I wanted to share this idea with you…and the kids have been working through this the past week and they have LOVED it! A very specific yard task that they can take in bite size pieces instead of an overwhelming list of tasks. I actually broke down the weeding areas into what I considered $1-$2 squares. And with our kids ranging from age 12 – age 5, this was perfect!
I went outside and made a list of tasks that I thought would be worth $1-$5 each. I then wrote these individual tasks on index cards, with the value and taped them to a poster board.
Now, when the kids are wanting to earn some extra money – they can pick a card, complete the task. Then, upon inspection, can get paid the money assigned to this task! It has worked so well so far this year. I plan to add tasks as needed and rotate many of the tasks on this board (like the weeding – LOL).
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