As we head into a new year, we all try to get many things in order as part of our resolutions or not, a new year brings new goals, hopes and desires.
One easy and fun way to get the whole family, especially the kids, involved in chores and helping around the house is by taking advantage of free online resources. The one we talk about here is the only one we have experience with and we have used it since this past summer and love it. Our kids love it, we love how easy it is and especially that it is free. What a fun and unique way to get kids involved and with the perfect timing for the new year and new family goals! Read below for information that we posted about this free system!
We found out about My Job Chart a while back and started using it! We use this in conjunction with our “bag chores” too that gives us whole house cleaning! I have tried chore chart after chore chart and this has been the best motivator for our kids!
Mom and Dad have the main account to manage and control everything, and then each child has their own log-in within that account to see their chores, rewards, and messages from you and to you!
To log-in, each child just clicks on his/her picture and enters the password. Mom and Dad’s log-in includes everything! Kids can only check off chores, see rewards, send messages, etc. They can’t change chores, change reward amounts, etc.
They love having this and what is so super cool is that it is totally customizable to fit your family! And that is just another thing that makes this so cool…. no matter how many paper versions we tried, we just couldn’t find anything that was totally customizable for our family’s plan! And then making my own was work as it would change often, and mine were boring as I wouldn’t include pictures to save time.
It was incredibly easy to set-up and you can leave encouraging messages to your child and they can send you messages too! In fact, one of our horse obsessed daughters can’t stop asking us in person to “move so we can get a horse,” she is also messaging it to me 🙂
So it only took me a few minutes to register and set-up the chore chart for each of my 4 kids that are old enough to do chores.
When you, as the mom or dad log-in, here’s what your options are on the first screen:
Basically, you can assign/edit/change jobs at any time, see the summary of what they have done that day, manage rewards, whether in the form of money, activities, you name it! We don’t pay our kids to do chores (they get an allowance, but not related to chores) as we want them to be a part of the family and the family dynamic and learning how to live and take care of themselves and others. But we do give rewards for chores being completed as a motivator, but often it is a pizza party, swimming, zoo, etc. BUT… the cool thing is whether you pay them, reward them or not, you can change and customize it all to fit your family!
Here’s the view from mom and dad’s side – it is really easy to assign chores:
- Pick a kid
- Then pick a chore that they already have in there or create your own to add
- Set-up the rewards points you want for that chore
- Then select the frequency and the day
Then this is what it looks like for you so that you can get a quick view of it and make any edits.
But when they log-in, here’s what they see:
It shows their chores for that day, their points balance since last time cashing in, and any messages from mom and dad!
Also, you have tons of flexibility in the rewards section! You can actually specify the spend, save, give system online.
Here’s what the savings section looks like if you chose to utilize this!
Then you can customize your rewards under these three categories! It is so user friendly!
You can choose rewards that they have with the reward points you set, or create your own rewards!
These are examples that they have in there already, but you can create your own too!
I just first set-up their chores and then went back in a week later and made “rewards” for their rewards store. Their points added up from the beginning, even if I didn’t have anything in their store yet 🙂 So you don’t even have to do it all at one time, it is so flexible!
They also have a section for you to set “extra” or “bonus” jobs that is not a part of their regular routine. We DO pay our kids for many extra chores and so this is a very nice feature. I didn’t have any set for today, but this screenshot shows that too!
So you are probably wondering how much such a cool, comprehensive and flexible online chore system costs?
Well, that is the even cooler part for this thrifty family….. the price tag is FREE!!
So we’ve shared our fun and success with this finally successful system, and now you can give it a try too! If it ends up not working for you, you are not out any money, but I can tell you that you will probably appreciate it! No longer having to deal with stickers, printing lists off, lost lists, etc., might be a blessing for you like it has been for us!
Head to MyJobChart HERE to register and get started for FREE in 3-easy steps! (BTW – they also have mobile options, which means that your kids can also log-in on tables and smart phones, you will see that when you register!)
1) Sign-up for MyJobChart!
2) Assign Chores to Your Kids
3) Reward Your Kids For Great Work!
See more Thrifty Kids Stuff
Leave a Reply