My Great Idea

As Kyara will attest, I am the queen of "programs." With six kids, motivation can be a problem, so I am always coming up with ways to entice them to do what I want. :) This summer, a brilliant idea came to me, so I thought I'd share it with everyone.

Every morning during the summer, I have the kids do a whole-house tidy before they can do anything fun. They are actually ok with this, because it means they have the rest of the entire day free without any work to do. However, my children have been known to bicker (gasp!) and finger-point whenever they have to work together.

In a sudden stroke of genius (inspiration? revelation?), I came up with our current system. Each day, I appoint one child to be the "manager." In order to be a good manager, they have to lead by example. They also get to give the other children assignments. However, again, to be a good manager, they need to assign tasks that are keeping with the other children's abilities and disposition. For example, if Kyara hates cleaning toilets, but Gavin doesn't mind, he should get the job. Also, Gavin shouldn't get the hardest jobs in the kitchen.

At the end of the tidy, the other children then rate the manager on how well he/she did on a scale from one to five. The manager then gets that many treats from my treat bowl as a "bonus." The manager then draws three jobs from the job jar, and whoever did those jobs during the tidy gets a little treat. (The job jar is just a jar with a bunch of small chores written on pieces of papers. It is also used as punishment throughout the day. :) )

It has worked wonders for our family this summer! I think we'll keep managers any time the kids have to work together.