A Piggy Bank full of Penny Freckles

I recently came to the realization that my daughter is old enough to benefit from the vital life lesson that can only be learned through doing some good ol' household chores. So we went online and printed out this toddler chore chart I've been saving. She was INTO it. Her "chores" include brushing teeth, eating her breakfast (eating has always been a chore for Wendy), getting dressed, making her bed and cleaning up her toys. Even though only the last two are real chores, the consistency is good. She gets to put a sticker under each category as she completes it, then after she fills every thing up for the whole week she gets a dollar. When I told her the deal, her little face lit up. I could see the wheels turning in her head, "So... I could go to the 99 cent store and get WHATEVER I want?!" I would love to teach her the concept of saving for something bigger but that might be a little over her 4 year old head. It was an interesting week teaching her the joys of contributing. She really impressed me. Sometimes having her help is actually more work (and takes more patience) than just doing it myself, but her enthusiasm for chores was impressive and adorable. I almost got choked up watching her pick up some of her toys in the playroom (without being asked, mind you). I knew it wouldn't even make a dent, but her desire to help out was so sweet.

Turns out, a week is a long time. And, after taking out Sundays (the sabbath), Mondays & Wednesdays (the days I work) it actually took two weeks. When she finally completed her 1st chore chart, I only had a twenty in my wallet. She had waited so so SO long for some reward for her hard work, I gave her the twenty, told her it was a dollar and switched it out of her piggy bank for a single the next night after she fell asleep. She lost a little enthusiasm by that point, so I upped the ante. We changed the deal to a quarter per day she does all her chores= mo money + instant gratification.

She also gets a nickle for every night she goes to bed without any funny business (crying, yelling for us, getting out of bed, etc.). She couldn't remember what a nickle was called and said, "You forgot to give me one of those, um... you know Mom... like a... penny... freckle... thing?" So now we all call them penny-freckles. Her piggy bank is full of them & it is SO worth it.