In order to earn back his iPad time, The Boy has agreed to do some chores to “pay back” his half of the repair bill.  We’ve developed a system, and we’ve tweaked it a bit, too, with input from his veryownself.  Within the past few days, he has voiced the desire to get this all done by the time school starts…  on Monday.  If you remember, this was originally supposed to be a four-week process…  But I didn’t want him to think it wasn’t possible.  I mean, if he wants to work extra hard to get it done quicker, there’s a valuable lesson in that.  Last night, I told him we’d sit down with the chore chart and the calendar in the morning and figure it out.

Today, we looked at the chart and figured out what chores he could accomplish today.  And I got him started right away – this was key.  I showed him how to wipe the kitchen counter down, and he did the other half on his own – check!  While standing there in the kitchen, looking at a pile of dishes that needed to be put away, I thought maybe he’d be motivated to earn some extra for things not on his chart…  “Hey, do you want to earn some extra money?  You could help me put the dishes away…”

“Yeah!  I’ll do that!”

Check!

Which lead to changing the load from the washer to the drier, which lead to folding some clothes…

I assigned him the towels, and showed him how to do it.  On his first try, it was a messy lump.  I had him re-do it, and told him to pay careful attention to lining the corners up just right.  And he did it.  And I realized I should have shown this to him ages ago.

Now he is in his room, attempting to clear the floor (i.e. putting all the clothes on his floor into the hamper).  All by himself.

This works for me!

🙂