My Job Chart

I have tried many different ways of tracking my kid's jobs.  First I tried a simple magnet board, on which was a paper with their jobs and a "done" box-- they were supposed to move the magnet over when the job was done.  This worked for about a day.  A sticker chart similar in form also had the same paltry results. 

A couple of years ago, I typed up my kids jobs by day and put a copy in a binder for reference.  This actually worked pretty well, mind you they were also older at this point and reading well.  I think one of the reasons this worked is it was a 'neutral' third party-- I often didn't know what their jobs were so they'd check the binder.  Almost made it seem like it wasn't me giving them the jobs in the first place.  The second reason this worked is I was more consistent about not letting them have certain privileges until their jobs were completed.  And it required little maintenance on my part -- I rarely added to their jobs or changed their jobs. 

One more side note-- I tried a couple different rewards systems linked to their jobs that failed.  One was fake money they could redeem for activities such as park days, dates, etc.  The trouble with this was that when I decided to take the kids to the zoo, I never knew if I should charge them for this, so I never did  (since it was my idea, and well, I couldn't very well leave one home..and it seemed a bit mean).  One of my children just saved her fake money for months on end and never used it for anything.  The other one was always trying to pay me to do his jobs (not a bad life lesson to learn, but not the point of the fake money).  I don't know if other people's kids do this, but mine absentmindedly leave coats, shoes, toys, etc in random places and don't even remember doing it.  I also wanted a way to "charge" them for this so they could have a natural consequence without my nagging them all the time.  I was about ready to try allowance for this, and I still may.  Whew.  Sorry.  This is long.

Enter My Job Chart.  http://www.myjobchart.com/  My husband had read about it in the Wall Street Journal and wanted to try it.   I was hesitant, since we had a system that was working fine.  We've been doing this for about three months now, and it is going well. 

Pros:
First, it is free.  Wahoo. 

Second, it allows you to customize jobs for each child.  For children who can't read, there is a little icon with a picture-- for example, a bed icon to show the child one of their jobs is  to make their bed.  If their system doesn't have the specific job you want to add, there is a customized field (minus icon) for you to input your own job.

Third, each job has a pre-assigned point value, redeemable for different rewards.  You can also change the point value of each job if you would like.  Points are roughly equal to a cent.  The parent enables which rewards the child can earn.  For example, my kids can earn park time, dates with Mom, etc.  You can also enable physical objects purchasable on Amazon through a link to Amazon (purchase is still made by parent, and the child can't surf Amazon, they just see the reward and its point value).  For example, say my child wants an ice cream cone and an ice cream cone is roughly $1.00, it would cost 100 points.  They can also choose to save those points (as money) or donate to charity, another lesson I want my kids to learn.  (I also like that the program is positive, not punitive, though I did add in a couple of "rewards" such as mom bus service for when they miss the bus on their own account)

Fourth, the program sends the parent a message when jobs are complete or when a child wants to redeem points.  

Fifth, the kids enjoy it.  They enjoy clicking the box when their jobs are completed and enjoy looking at their reward points to see what they can "buy."  They also love sending me messages, though most of them are silly, and they get frustrated that I sometimes don't get their messages for a few days since I didn't log on to the computer.  :)

I still have my old fashioned binder in case they want to check their jobs in non-electronic form, but they actually get really worked up when they can't check their jobs on the computer.  (I guess this is a con)

This works because again, it is low maintenance.  Once its set up I don't actually have to do anything with it each day. 

The only big con for me is that I want them to learn to do their jobs without them being tied to money rewards.  (we work because we're part of a family)   In this case I may just eliminate the money based rewards and give them an allowance separately.  I want them to learn how to manage money, too, and in this case the parent is the one handling the money.

If you want to try this, good luck!  Again the address is:  http://www.myjobchart.com/  I would love to hear if anyone else has a system they like.