Chore Chart: Screen Time Management Tickets

It's summer time, school is out, and our summer routine is in full swing.

I was naive about summer, at first. I thought we could be home all day with one another,

pick up after ourselves, watch a little TV and read a lot.

Enter our our summer routine and the Job Chart!

It really has been a lifesaver and made our summer days flow along and give
us purpose, keep the house in order, and give the kids a chance to earn some money.
I still have the belief that we help around the house because we are part of a family
and family members help one another and we're all responsible for our home.
However, I think that money management is an important life skill,
so getting paid for work, and managing that money is one way to teach that.



Another thing that we struggle with during summer is screen time.
Isabella would seriously watch Netflix all day long if she could and JT would
be glued to Minecraft or the XBox if I allowed it.
Since I didn't want zombie children by the end of the summer, even though
technology zombie children are quiet and I get a lot of things done,
it's just not good for them.



So, to avoid zombie children, I create Screen Time tickets. Each ticket is worth 30 minutes
and they get 3 tickets per day, for a total of 18 tickets for a week.
We use our tickets Monday through Saturday. On Sunday we don't do our job charts,
so its a little more free and go with the flow that day due to church and naps.
They keep their Screen Time tickets in envelopes we made together.

I hand the tickets out on Monday morning and each Monday they get punches
on their money punch cards for any tickets that they didn't use during the previous week.
They can use a maximum of three cards per day, for a total of an hour and half of screen time.
Once all of their jobs are done for the day, then they have the option to use a ticket.
They can also lose tickets for poor behavior. It wasn't an issue last summer,
but this summer I've had to take away a few cards.
You better believe their behavior changes really quickly, because Screen Time tickets
are a precious commodity.

So, now you have a picture of how our whole summer home management system works.
I've been really happy with how it works for our family. I tweak it a little bit during
the school year to work around the school day, homework, lessons and practice.
If you'd like them, you can print your screen time tickets here.

Chore Chart: Money Punch Card Printable

Last week I share our family's household chore chart and how we implement

it during the summer months.

We're now almost two weeks into the summer routine and everything is going well.

I do have to admit that we were a little lax over the Fourth of July holiday weekend,

but I think that is totally ok! In real life, you get holidays and weekends off, so I think

it's totally ok to take a day off and be more laid back with the schedule.

Today I'm continuing the series about our summer chore chart routine and sharing

about how I compensate my kids for their hard work.

Let me preface by saying that I still subscribe to the school of thought that 

receiving payment for jobs, chores and household work is a privilege - a perk.

However, I have also come to discover that my kids are much more willing to do

their chores if there is some type of reward for doing the work.

I also think it's important for kids to learn the value of money and how to manage 

and save for things that are important.

Enter our job punch card!

This little cutie is how my kids receive monetary reward for completing their daily 

chores and jobs around the house. After they complete all the jobs on their chore chart,

and I have checked them for completion, it is their responsibility to bring their

Job Card to me so that I can sign/punch them for the day.

They get one punch per job completed, so with our current chore chart system,

they can earn 8 punches a day just for completing their job chart.

Each punch is worth $.10. This is a big motivator for my kids, so there is no

need to have a punch worth more than that.

You could always make your punches worth $.25 or punch two times per job.

They can also earn extra punches during the day for helping me with extra jobs,

doing kind things or trading in their unused screen time tickets (more on that later)

The kids keep their job card on the refrigerator next to their chore charts
and it is a visual reminder to bring it to me when their jobs are done.
When we first started, I punched the cards, but I was always misplacing the
punch, so I just start initialing the cards and that has worked well for us too.

The kids get paid on Monday nights at Family Home Evening.
They can only get paid when their punch card is full.
So if it's Monday and the card isn't full, they have to wait until the next week
to get their card paid out. When they get paid, they have to put their money
into their money box which is divided into - tithing, savings, and fun.
They like to keep their "fun" money in their wallets, and I don't mind that at all.

I have created a PDF printable version of my Job Card that you can print and use
in your home to help reward your kids hard work!

I made mention that my kids can get extra punches and earn more money
if they trade in unused screen time tickets.
Come back next week and find out how we manage screen time during
summer vacation and keep everyone from overdosing on the screen!

This home runs on . . . AWESOME!

Just a fun 8x10 printable to remind you

to be AWESOME!

You can download it HERE!