How I Got Started

A couple of months ago, Holt really started showing interest in helping with things around the house. He wanted to help feed the dogs, get the mail, make dinner and other things like that. I started doing some research on people who have started chore or job charts for children his age and I found a lot of cool ideas and fun success stories. It really made me want to try something with Holt, so I hopped onto Etsy for inspiration. Holt has loved playing with the magnets on our fridge, so I knew I wanted to do something with magnets and I came across the CUTEST Etsy shop called Ms. Frieda’s Classroom. I’ll put a link to her shop below, because you have to check it out! She has so many adorable custom chore/job magnets for an affordable price. I was so impressed with the quality when I got them in the mail. The fun thing about these magnets, is that you can pick and choose which ones you want for your specific needs. There are chores, activities, even rewards! You can really do whatever you want with them. I decided to add “brush teeth” and “take a bath” to Holt’s job list, because I needed an incentive to get him to brush his teeth and I knew taking a bath would be an easy win for him.

How I Use the Chart

I ordered a magnetic whiteboard for our fridge (link below) and I just wrote “to do” on one side and “done” on the other. At the start of the day all of the magnets are on the “to do” side and as the day goes on, if Holt does a job, he gets to move the magnet to the “done” side. Some things are easier to get him to do than others of course, but for the most part he has loved helping out. About 80% of the time saying “If you do this you get to move your magnet” works as a good incentive. We aren’t quite doing all of the jobs every day, but even getting two or three done feels like a win. He gets excited about it, which is what I wanted to accomplish through this. I don’t want him to grow up and feel like helping out around the house or doing little things like brushing his teeth or taking a bath are burdensome chores. I want him to think that they are fun things that we get to do together. I’ve loved watching him go straight to helping feed the dogs as soon as Kasey gets home from work or when he sees me get ready to cook dinner and he moves a chair over to help. My goal is to instill in him a love of helping others and I really feel like it’s never too early to start teaching responsibility. Overall, I feel like the job chart has been successful and I’m excited to keep using it and adding to it as the years go on!

Product Links

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MsFriedasClassroom

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JZBXSB7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1