THEN, I found Accountable Kids quite accidentally. Truly, I'm not sure how I stumbled upon their site. As I navigated through their site and read reviews I quickly realized that it was what I'd been searching for and then some.
Accountable Kids is more than just a chore chart. It's a unique positive parenting program teaching children responsibility and accountability.
Because they value their customers' opinions, they offer a rebate for doing a review of their program after implementing it for 30 days. Even without the rebate, I likely would have "reviewed" it here because I love it and want to share how it is working in our little family.
Each child has their own 5-peg board. The first peg holds their reminder cards. The kit comes with oodles of options for "chores" (brush teeth, clothing, pajamas, dishes, car care, yard work, etc.) and even a few blank ones. All the reminder cards have 5 bands of colour on the bottom. For chores we determined to be "morning" chores, we cut off the bottom 4 colours leaving only the yellow band. For "day" chores the bottom 3 bands are cut off leaving red at the bottom and for "evening" chores, the two bottom colours are cut off so blue is at the bottom. This colour coding of chore cards helps children know what chores are to be completed when.
At the beginning of each day, all the cards are on the first peg. As chores are completed, the kids turn their cards over and move them to the second peg. Each of the cards have a corresponding picture so even our almost 3-year old can participate. After all the yellow "morning" chores are on the child's second peg, a ticket is given. A ticket is given after the completion of "day" and "evening" chores as well. I LOVE this part of the program. A ticket can be exchanged by the child for a priviledge. In our house so far this has been 30 minutes of TV or 30 minutes of computer time. This has really made a shift in our family, for all of us. It has made TV/computer time a priviledge, not a right.
Just as tickets are given, they can be lost for inappropriate behaviours. Jordan usually loses his reward card for biting or hitting instead of using his words. Abby usually uses hers when she is rude, unkind, or refuses to do what she has been asked to do. Jude usually uses his for incessant whining. It works very well! Usually they have only to lose one ticket and their behaviour changes, although we have had 3 tickets lost in one "episode".
One night we decided that if each child had 3 tickets, we could have a movie night. Jude and Abby both had enough, but Jordan only had 2. Before we said anything, Abby offered Jordan one of her tickets so that they could all participate. Because she had shown kindness and an unselfish attitude, we awarded her a "Best Behaviour Card", a card that can be used as a ticket to pay for a priviledge. The best behaviour card helps us to reward the kids for something that we think is very special and helps reinforce positive behaviours. Jude received a best behaviour card today when he offered to carry Abby's backpack to the house for her after school. Another day he received one for listening really well to his gymnastics coach.
Tickets and Best Behaviour Cards are kept on the 3rd peg. "Bonus Bucks" are also kept on the 3rd peg. Children have the opportunity to earn money for extra chores, the ones that we don't mind paying them for. We decided what these chores would be and placed the Reminder Cards for these chores on the 5th peg. The kids can, at any time, take one of the cards and complete the chore. For example, during our first week, Abby folded 3 large baskets of clothing and placed them in the appropriate basket to be put away in drawers and closets. She worked for 45 minutes and earned 2 Bonus Bucks ($2). Jude is my dusting guy. Jordan is my window guy. At the end of the week their Bonus Buck cards are exchanged for real money which they each keep in jars they decorated. It's teaching the kids delayed gratification and about earning their own money to spend how they wish.
What about the 4th peg? Glad you asked because it's one of my favourite parts! The 4th peg holds the Special Date Card. For each day that the child has successfully completed all 3 sets of chores, a star is added to their Special Date Card. After 10 stars the child is able to go on a special date with whoever they choose. Abby chose Daddy for her first date night. They went out for supper together and then played together at a local park. I got to go with Jude! We went for supper at the mall, checked out toys at Zellers, got ice cream and then headed to the Marina where he used our old camera to take pictures. Jordan and Jon are the next to go out together.
The board is supposed to be placed in a visible place in the home. We chose the dining room. The only problem we've encountered with this is that many of the kids' chores are done upstairs (brushing teeth, putting dirty laundry in the hamper, etc.) so they will run up and down stairs to see what is to be done next or to turn over their cards.
Overall, the program is working very well for our familyand I've already recommended it to several friends (two have already ordered their kits!). Check out Accountable Kids. They even have a video outlining the whole program on their Home page.
