New Chores and Chart!

As part of a family, we expect our kids to help out around our house, but some of my children don't like being told what to do (who does, right!).  I can really use the help, but I got complaining every time I asked them something. This just became a circle of arguing, and Matt came up with a solution!

He said he could write a program that gave everyone their chores, and he would use the program Trella, which they use at work to divide up tasks.  He bought a new computer, and he mounted it on our wall in the kitchen. He then wrote this program, and he assigned certain chores to certain children. The kids can now EASILY walk up to the computer and see what tasks they have to do for the day WITHOUT ME TELLING THEM! Yay!  When they are done with their task, they go to the computer and move it to the "done" column.  If it is not done by the time listed, it goes to "uncompleted" on its own.  They kids have required tasks, such as bringing down the laundry,  and optional tasks, such as helping with Micah.

Matt has also written the program so that each task is assigned a dollar amount, for instance, they earn a quarter when they empty the dishwasher. When a task is moved to the "done" column, the program will give them their set amount of money.  This has been the biggest motivator! Now the kids can see how much money they have earned as the time goes along. We have been doing this about three weeks now, so they have a running total until we pay them. 

Everybody that comes over to our house sees the computer on the wall and asks what it is about. We show them and then everybody says, "Hey, I love it. Can you do that for my family??" We have yet to have a family seriously ask Matt to make one for them, but he should really sell it! It has been amazing!!!

One a side note, Matt just added another part to the program.  It will take money away from the kids if they do not do their required tasks. Hahahaha!! This is because they have been doing about half the chores and leaving me to do the rest. The whole point of this was to help mom out!!!