Hard-workin' man

Inspired by his cousins Luke and Jacob, Spencer decided he wanted to do chores around the house to earn money so that he could buy things that he wants. So with some guidance from my sister-in-law and some helpful and ultra-creative bloggers, I assembled my first-ever chore chart.

Our system is pretty straight-forward. Spencer is not required to do chores. He does them because he wants to make money. So whenever I see an opportunity for him to help with one of the chores (e.g., the dryer is full of dry clothes and needs emptying), I'll call out to Spence that there's a job available if he wants it. Almost 100% of the time over the past few weeks, he's hopped up to do the work, especially when it involves a spray bottle. When he does the job, he gets to pull the little Velcroed image of the task off of his chore chart and deposit it back in the chore envelope. Then we transfer a ticket from the "bank" to his "earned" pocket. Saturday morning is payday.

And today, with a couple of last-minute chores, Spencer had exactly enough to buy Mater. $3.77. At ten cents per chore, minus 10% for tithing and 10% for savings and $1.00 for all the hand soap and shampoo he dumped down the drain a couple weeks ago, that's a lot of work he's done. I am so, so proud of him. Mater has been the motivation for all of Spencer's chore-doing, so after Spence triumphantly grabbed Mater off the Walmart shelf, I was sure to have him choose the next car he wants to earn. (If only I knew how to pronounce "Raoul CaRoule" ...)