Finally, something that works

If you know me, you know my brain doesn't work in an organized fashion. I enjoy the concept of organization and I'm capable of maintaining simple organization...but ask me to make a daily plan or stick to a routine or come up with a organizational system and I'm at a loss.

So, you can imagine, chore charts have not been a part of my children's lives. I've tried many, many different charts. Written charts, sticker charts, magnetic charts, moving a paper from one side to another, computerized charts...nothing has stuck.

But then one of my MOFs mentioned an idea that I thought was brilliant. She makes "media bucks" for her kids. They earn a media buck for exercising and something else that I don't remember. Each buck was worth 30 mins of computer/TV/video game time. So I thought "I can do that" and talked to Dave about it and he created some physical media bucks and we started it.

Turns out...keeping track of those little paper dollars and who had how many and how to earn them was outside the realms of my organizational abilities.

So then Dave took over and revamped it in such a way that I'm capable of keeping it up. All I have to do is go to the webpage he made and add the amount they earn. If they want to use one, I click use. If they lose any for bad behavior, I click minus. They also have the option of trading them in for money or prizes which cuts down on their media time.

The best part is when I want extra chores done I can just offer X media bucks and I have eager kids ready for chores! It's amazing! And I've actually kept it going for a while now. I'm kinda amazed at myself. :) Not to mention, I'm sitting here blogging while one kid cleans the kitchen, another is folding laundry and a third is cleaning the playroom. Yay for cheap labor!