Make a "Toy Jail" Along with Bail Chores for the Boys
This is an idea I'd seen around, particularly on Pintrest. I'd started the idea by putting aside a storage bin that would become the jail, thinking that I'd get the bail chores written up "soon". But every time I sat down to think about these chores, I didn't have any good ideas for what to add in them. And, of course, when I went back to look in the various things I'd pinned, nothing was jumping out at me as the right thing. But I've gotten so tired of cleaning up after boys that are old enough to clean up after themselves! So it seemed like the perfect thing to challenge myself with.
First, I looked around to see what I could find to add to the chores. I started with a link I'd found on Pintrest that lead me to Just Another Day in Paradise with the toy jail she'd come up with. And while I liked some of her chores (and the fact that she had a printable for it), not all of them fit for us. I had a bunch of scrap paper strips that I'd picked up when I thought I might actually scrapbook some day and figured that these could be cut perfectly into chore slips for this project. I wanted more ideas than what I could pull from this wonderful blog, though. So I went to Google and looked around to see what I could find. My gold mine (and something I may use later when the boys start getting on the band wagon of chores done together being an easier thing than Mommy having to nag) was the .pdf and tutorial I found at Whatever Dee-Dee Wants, She's Gonna Get It. She uses a chore jar and the has the .pdf printable to put the chores onto popsicle sticks and then into a can to chose from. There's also plenty of blanks for you to create your own.
Between the two of them, I came up with 20 different possible chores to put into the envelope. The only one that got nixed by Rich was the running up and down the stairs. 19 possibilities aren't bad. Particularly when I know that some of them, we'll have to teach them how to do.
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| All the strips of paper, scanned for your viewing pleasure. |
The next thing I wanted to come up with was something to put on the outside of the envelope. For all that I liked what Larissa posted on her post at Just Another Day in Paradise, I wanted to see if I could come up with one myself. So after a lot of thought, I came up with a little poem and an reminder. I'm not expecting them to read it every day, I don't want them coming back and saying, "You never told me that!" It's a cute little poem, if I do say so myself.
So now the only thing left to do is figure out the easiest way to attach it to the bin and start enforcing! But we're further along now than we were yesterday.
What am I challenging myself to tomorrow? Well, I don't play with my kids nearly often enough. So my challenge to myself tomorrow is
Play a board game with my kids
I know that I've got a busy weekend ahead, but I think we can carve out time for a game of something with them, don't you?
