Ah-Ha! Job jars

Remember this? Well, last year we took it a step further and blended our points system with the school's color code discipline system and created a flexible reward/punishment program. This has been a great tool in our family dynamics and the boys - especially Jared - respond really well to it. The established system hasn't changed much since it's implementation, but the way to earn points has evolved a bit. Today we had a major breakthrough.

The boys could earn points for be ready for the day by a certain time, answering questions correctly while reading scriptures, being reverent, and doing whatever else we may decide to offer points for. Sometime in the last 6 months Matthew created a job chart and every day we each had a job/chore we had to accomplish. If that assigned chore was done, 5 points would be awarded. For second and third chores, even more points would be acquired. There are a few chores that are accomplished regularly, but most of them are not.

With Matthew gone, I've known I needed to step up and be more quick to act otherwise this is going to be a nightmare year. I'm much harder on the boys and willing to take away their points. When Matthew went to NJ in May for 4 days, the boys spent just about every day on red (no privileges and no chance to earn them back for that day). It was pretty miserable - but I did get a lot of work out of them :). I've drawn on that experience to remind the boys to be obedient, and it has worked. I'm really quick to take away points, but unfortunately often forget to award points so there is little chance to earn their way off of the negative colors. Today Jared was on orange and I wanted to show him something on the tv, but realized he had no privileges so I couldn't. We needed a win-win for earning points. In this moment, inspiration struck.

This weekend when I was at B&J's, I read a clipping from a blog post about job jars. Basically you write down chores to do on index cards or popsicle sticks along with the amount of money earned for accomplishing it. They were using change (3 cents, 25 cents, etc). The rules were that in order to be paid, the job had to be done to mom (or dad)'s satisfaction. The job drawn had to be completed before another job could be picked.

Well, I don't have money to hand out, but I do have points!! So, I presented the idea to Jared (and Aaron). Jared was so excited about it!! I tasked him with thinking of jobs we could write down and he spent about 15 min drawing pictures of work that could be done. His ideas were cleaning the sink, the turtle tank, and cleaning his room. We've tweaked it for us, but the same rules apply.

We (because the boys helped too) used popsicle sticks for our job jar. We made sticks for all the morning and evening jobs: praying, brushing teeth, getting dressed, making beds, etc. We colored the morning jobs yellow and the night jobs blue, and then the sides of the sticks are color coordinated to match their point peg. In the morning (or at night) they can draw which of their routine jobs to do first and will earn 1 point for each job accomplished. Once a tast is completed, they turn the stick over. Points can be earned immediately (thus overcoming an orange or red color before the end of the day).

Each of the boys has a daily routine jar, and then there's a big jar filled with the other assignments. The jobs range from 'cleaning the bathroom sink' to 'jumping to the count of 10'. I threw in a 'read for 10 minutes' and 'write your name 5 times' as well. I broke down cleaning the bedroom to more specific tasks like: put away all the books and throw away the trash. Each task is assigned a point value ranging from 1 - 5 points. I even included two Riley Challenge sticks from Flylady because there will be tasks that she could think of that I would never have. Every time Jared drew a stick tonight he was saying, 'I hope it's not a Riley Challenge' lol

It was amazing to watch the boys tonight. Aaron didn't get as into it as Jared did, but he was still excited about finding out what his job was. Jared did 5 or 6 tasks. He would have done more, but we ran out of time. He ended up cleaning the toilet, reading for 10 minutes, writing his name (he has to use the dry erase board with the lines to practice good letter sizing - in the future he has to do first and last name), wiping up all the dirt spots on the floor (lucky him the floor had been mopped recently), helping with the dishes (again he lucked out b/c there weren't very many), putting away the books (which requires actually putting the books on the shelf the way they belong which was quite the task today) AND he took out the trash (which was his chore for the day). He even put away all the blocks he had pulled out - without complaining and without earning points!!! It was so impressive. He moved so quickly through his bedtime chores and everything. He went to bed happy.

Aaron picked out sweep the bathroom floor (which it desperately needed! YAY!)

It would be naive of me to think that this will happen every day, but for today it worked wonders.

Literally today was one of the best days we've had in a long time. The boys loved helped making their sticks, they got to play, cleaned up without arguing.... Aaron asked to help me with the food I was working on, we had dinner on the table by 6:30, we read scriptures, and the boys were in bed by 7:45 pm without a word (because I threatened they'd go down a color - and Jared worked VERY hard to earn his white). Absolutely incredible.

Oh, and I made a job jar for me too. I put some of the deep cleaning jobs that I often neglect as well as tasks that I want to get done but sometimes end up going undone because I start turning in circles not knowing where to start. This will give me some direction/structure. I also put in there to call one of my VT sisters (one for each of them), practicing piano, writing in my journal - I ought to add some exercise ones.

Hopefully with all of us working through these job jar tasks, our home will be a much more pleasant place to be :)