Kids Chores

 So back when I was in the middle of my "horror month" of stress, I made these.  I was tired of doing everything myself, when I have 2 children who are capable of helping out.  It was more work in the beginning showing them how to do everything, but we are now in our 4th week and things are much much better.  I feel like a HUGE load has been taken off of me.
 First off the kids have 4 chores to do daily.  (Yes I realize Lilly only has 3 , more on that later) They get a pom pom for each chore they complete by 5pm.  They receive 10 cents for each chore.  Which adds up to $3 a week.  We pay them on Sunday (mostly so they can do tithing right then.)  I know a lot of people frown upon paying kids for chores, but this is how we do it and what works for us.  Before, we were buying the kids stuff left and right and saying yes to everything and then, they wouldn't even look at the thing once they got home.  We stopped buying them things.  (We still buy them food and clothes and pay for school lunch and field trips and the necessities) But we told them, that if they want extra things like Monster trucks and Halloween things for Max or Books, books, books for Lilly they have to save their money and buy it themselves.  It has really made them re-think what they want to spend their money on and more aware of how much stuff costs.

A note on Lilly and a disclaimer; she asks for "BOOKS ONLY" for Birthdays, Christmas and any holiday that gifts are involved.  She doesn't want anything else.  She has more than 80 books probably.  We are running out of room in our house.  We go to the Library every 3 weeks (when books are due)  and she still will get books for the above mentioned occasions.  I just can't afford to buy her a $15 book every time we leave the house.  Cause she finds books everywhere.  I feel like a mean parent some times because the only way to punish her is to limit her reading time.  She doesn't care enough about anything else.  Not allowing her to stay up and read is usually her punishment for misbehavior.  Until now.
  Anytime we get to 3 , which equals a time out (Thank you 1 2 3 Magic) the kids loose a pom pom (which is one chore or 10 cents).  They can earn it back by doing an extra chore.  We have only had 2 time outs in the last 4 weeks.  It's been wonderful.
In addition, Lilly has had (or I should say Lilly's teacher has had) an extremely hard time this year.  (I'm not so sure it's Lilly as much as it's the teacher, because some teachers have been more understanding and not had a problem at all)  In Lilly's class they get a colored card throughout the day depending on their behavior.  Green is the best, then light green, yellow, then brown and finally black.  Black means dismissal from class.  Very serious.  Brown means letter home to parents and no recess and still pretty serious.  Lilly got a brown card one day last week.  So long story short, we decided that one of Lilly's chores is to behave in class.  If she gets green or light green (a warning) she still gets a pom pom.  Anything below that, no pom pom and no chance to earn it back.  We don't want her misbehaving and then "making it up" by emptying the dishwasher.  So far so good.  She has received all good colors.
Anyways this was about 100 times longer than I first expected when I started this post and If you are still reading thank you :)