DIY Cheeky Spare Key Holder

My husband always is working on some car.

Whether it's a junker he's picked up off of Craigslist for a project...somebody who needs a timing belt done in the neighborhood...changing a body over...cleaning a motor...whatever.

He loves it.

I hate it.

I don't like the junkyard that accumulates in our yard...and how long it takes to get the junkers out of our yard once they make their way in.

I also don't like the pile of keys that always seem to end up in my kitchen...he hangs them up or puts them in a drawer...but ugh.

We kind of butt heads on this...a lot.

So I decided to stop being a nag about it...well at least try to bite my tongue a lot more.

I love my husband and have decided to support him in his "hobby" and try to 'cuten' it up as much as I can.

I went to Michaels and picked up a wood scrapbook frame, it will hold a 12x12 piece of art. I also picked up some pegs.

I picked out this cheeky little tile vinyl from ten23 that says, "Still Plays With Cars."

And I attached it to a 12x12 piece of cork board that I had on hand (you can pick up a 4 pack of these for pretty cheap at Wal-Mart).

Using the fabulous Gorilla Wood Glue I added a dab of glue to each peg before sticking it in the hole. Some of those key chains get pretty heavy. I let it dry for a bit and then (I forgot to take a picture of this step) used a small 1 1/4 inch DISCHanger on the back and let that dry.

It's hanging up in our garage now, and my hubby loves it.

He laughed when he saw it and realized I was making an effort to 'fix' our little on-going back and forth about the car situation, so it made him super happy. I got the keys out of my kitchen and he has a gets a reminder of how much I love him every time he hangs up another set of keys of the latest project he's working on. :)

This tutorial can be found in full over at the DIY Club

Be sure to go over and join the party-the prize packages are hard to beat! :)

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Cleaning the House is Fun to Do! Part 3: Money Time

Have you read part 1 and part 2 of my Cleaning the House is Fun to Do series?

So far, I have shown you how we made our chore chart and what the kids are expected to do for their jobs.

Now how do they get rewarded for doing those jobs?

Money.

Although like I said before, money isn't the main motivating factor most days...unless they are saving up for a special toy or game. The biggest motivating factor is that we don't do anything extra until the jobs are done.

For example; If the kids want a treat in the middle of the day, I ask if their jobs are done-if the answer is yes, I am much more likely to say yes.

If the kids want to walk to the park, same thing...I am much more likely to say yes to them if they answer yes to that question, and they have learned that over and over.

So why even do the money part? My husband and I think it's important for them to learn about the value of money, the importance of saving for something they want rather than instant gratification and also about giving.

This is just what we do and it's worked for us really well.

Every night...and that is key...we get together and one of the kids brings us the envelope with their completed jobs in it.
We get out our "money bucket." The money bucket consists of a zippered pencil pouch for each child, an envelope for each child, and a decorated peanut butter jar for each child. I also have a Crystal light canister covered in paper that is about half way full of dimes. Every time my husband and I get change back and there is a dime, we stick it in that canister. We then pull out each child's jobs from the envelope one at a time and recognize that they did all of their jobs. At this age, this is still really important to them...they love the recognition each night, "You put your clothes away so nicely today" or "Thanks for taking the garbages out, that helped daddy out a lot!" Sometimes it's also a time for reprimands too, "You know what, we're not going to pay you for getting ready this morning, because of the tantrum you threw when I told you to put down the toys and get dressed."

We then give them a dime for each job that they did. If they get paid for all of their jobs, they get 50 cents a day. A total of $2.50 a week.

That is how most nights end. We give the kids back the envelope full of jobs and they put it back up on the white board and set their jobs back up on their way to bed.

We used to sort out the money once a week on Saturday, but we have started doing it just when we feel like it's time...or if our dime jar is getting low...or if a child wants to buy something and is a couple dollars short. It usually happens about every 2 1/2 weeks.

We take all the money out of their pouches and divide them into dollars.
If there are leftovers that don't make a dollar, we make it easy on ourselves and the kids and put them back in the pouches.
We do dimes for the simple reason that it is the easiest way to do percentages.

10% right off the top goes to charity...in our case it goes to tithing for our church. It's a great way to teach the kids about giving,,,and math! :)

So Christopher made $5 and 50 cents went to tithing, we put it in an envelope until it's ready to be paid.
Then they put 20% of the total into their savings jar. This is long term saving...we may let them save for a big ticket purchase or put it into their savings account at the bank.

So $1 of Christopher's $5 went into the savings jar last night.
Then he is left with $3.50
Rather than giving them a bunch of dimes, we always trade them for bigger change and bills and then put the dimes back in the jar. (Before our kids pay their tithing, we usually do the same thing, we trade the dimes in for bigger bills and change, and we do the same with the spending jars whenever we get the chance).

Then they put their spending money in their wallets and happily skip off to bed with thoughts of all the things they are going to spend all that lovely money on!

I know that dimes are only going to motivate them for so long as they get older, but for now they are all super excited to have this little bit of money to spend on whatever they want. I really try not to dissuade or persuade them on their purchases...although it's very hard at times to bite my tongue. ;)

What do you do for allowance at your house?

If you have older children, do you still do allowance, and how do you handle that?

I am going to be posting about what I do to contribute to the housework probably next week...would you be interested in a clean along? We can all clean our houses together and support one another in our efforts. Let me know if you think that is the worst idea ever! ;)

Let's be friends!

Cleaning the House is Fun to Do! Part 2: Age Appropriate Jobs

Hi again! Did you get a chance to read part 1 of my cleaning the house is fun to do series?

You may be wondering what this has to do with Making the World Cuter...but let me tell you; when your house is clean, and you don't have to hound your kids to help constantly....

They look cuter. Trust me.

Your house obviously looks cuter.

You smiling rather than screaming is definitely cuter.

And...a clean house and helpful kids gives you more time to focus on making the rest of your world cuter!

Here is my board if you remember with all of the jobs lined up.

I have three different kids doing jobs and I give them all the same jobs. I know that sounds crazy! Why would I give my 3 year old the same jobs as I give my 7 year old? Can't the very competent 7 year old do way more than the barely potty trained 3 year old?

Why yes, yes she can, but it sets the precedence for the younger children, and makes them feel more like they are contributing just as much.

It also helps that 7 year old to see that she is not getting picked on because she is the oldest, everyone contributes just the same.

I will go into more detail on each of their jobs and expectations.

Let me get in a little bit closer...The jobs that my kids get each day are;

• Get ready (the picture shows a shower, a toothbrush and a sun). This includes getting up and getting dressed for the day without being nagged, if they need a shower then that is part of it. The boys as a general rule take a tub at night, and my daughter showers in the morning. They also are responsible for eating breakfast-either on their own (they can all get their own cereal, or help the younger ones at least, and they can all make toast), or come down on time when my husband or I make breakfast. When they are done eating, they all rinse their dishes and put them in the dishwasher. Yup, even the 3 year old. He may not load it perfectly, and he may use way more water than needed to rinse a cup of milk out...but he is perfectly capable of standing on a stool, rinsing his dishes and putting them in the dishwasher. The final part of this job is brushing their teeth in the morning. At night, my husband and/or I help them brush their teeth, but in the morning it is their responsibility and it helps them learn how to do it themselves. (My sister-in-law is a dental hygienist and suggests going in after your kids brush at least once a day until they are 7, I know that may sound old, but I've watched my daughter brush...not pretty).
• Clean their room & make their beds. This is an obvious one. I am a control freak mom, I admit it openly. I can't handle a messy kids room. I know, I know kids rooms are supposed to be their spaces to do with what they will. I don't buy into that whole thing...at least not fully. I do think that kids should be able to have choices in their rooms; but they should be choices that you can live with. It is after all your house still, and we can't really leave our decorating up to our 5 year old, or we would have mosaics of Mario all over our walls. So I give my kids choices in decorating. "Should we put your bed here or here?" or "Do you like yellow or blue for your sheets?" One option they do not get is; "Do you like your room clean or messy?" At least not in this house. (I do make this as easy as possible on them with a toy rotation...I'll discuss this another time). Now while making the beds may be important, I also think it's important to let the kids do the best they can do and not go in after them...at least not every day. Here is my 7 year old daughter's bed this morning after making it...and here is my three year old son's bottom bunk bed this morning after making it. Is it driving me crazy? I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to go fix it right this second and forget about the rest of this post...but I do think it's important to let him do a job to the best of his ability and leave it at that. The bed making is one of those jobs I can let that happen on. He is very proud that he can make his own bed, and he is improving if you can believe it! :)
• Take Care of Laundry. This is another one of those that I have to close my eyes to on most days, but I have made that easier on myself. If you can see on the above picture under my sons bed, I have a couple of roller totes that I keep all out of season clothes and clothes that I don't want my boys wearing...such as church clothes. Then instead of a dresser we bought this storage unit at Target and some cubes to fill it. It looks cute in their room and the kids don't slam their fingers in drawers or get them jammed when they fill them with clothes. My husband washes laundry at night and then brings up the dried clothes in the morning before he goes to work almost every day. More on that another day. I separate the clothes into individual baskets for them and the kids put them away. What is supposed to happen is they are supposed to fold their clothes and put them in the right bins so they can see what they have....remember they pick out their own clothes so I be sure to just have play clothes in their bins that they can easily mix and match. What usually happens is they roll them their clothes into balls and put them in the bins. I don't get in the way. If I tried to keep their clothes perfect all the time, it would be a full time job. My daughter does an excellent job...now. But there was a time when her drawers and closet looked a lot like this. My mom used to give me grief about my daughter, saying, "What she has chores?" When she was about a year and a half old, she wouldn't leave her room until it was picked up. She didn't have chores at that age, but I had showed her how to clean up from the time she was old enough to make a mess. We never left her room after playing until it was clean. She learned early on that is how it's done. I wasn't as diligent with my boys, so they are not as organized as she is, but they still do a pretty good job for a 3 and 5 year old boys! Start them young, and then when they get to be about 6 or 7, you have them trained to do it just the way you want. (That sounded bad, but you do want to train your kids to do it the right way...which is obviously your way...right?) :)
• Practice/Read/School Work. This is something that looks different for each of my kids. During the summer it looks a little different than during the school year. Right now, the 7 year old practices piano, and does a math and a language worksheet. I don't worry about her reading because she reads probably an average of 2-3 hours a day. For my 5 year old, he reads me one of his early reader books, and sometimes I have him do reading flash cards and/or a math work sheet...but mostly I just have him read me a book. He starts kindergarten next month, so my most important focus is on reading with him. For my 3 year old, he just has to get a book read to him. I usually take on that fun job, but sometimes if the baby needs me or I am just running a little thin in the morning, my older kids can step up. Sometimes if he is feeling bored while they are working on worksheets I hand him a coloring book and crayons.
  
• Age Appropriate Helping Job. This is a job that actually contributes to the household. Not just something in their own room. I think this is important in that they can take pride in the rest of the house and the job that they are doing. My 7 year old does one of my most hated jobs every day...unloading the dishwasher. She doesn't mind it at all, it actually helps me out, and she's learned to do it pretty much perfectly. My 5 year old takes out any full garbage each day. Huge help! He is old enough, and strong enough to do it right.
  My 3 year old cleans the living room clutter. It's usually his messes, but it helps us out from having to get frustrated with him. He also gets upset when others make a mess in there; "Hey! I just cleaned this room!"
  

I am constantly surprised at how young my kids can actually contribute to keeping a clean home when we make it their responsibility. My kids know that they don't get to go out and play, we don't go to the park, we don't get treats, we don't play video games, we don't watch movies, we don't do anything extra...unless jobs are done. At this point they usually don't even ask. If they do, it's just a simple reminder asking them if their jobs are done and it's usually, "Oh yeah!" and they run off to finish.

Tomorrow I will talk about the money aspect of my kids jobs...one of the big motivators that get them going...but I think just not being able to do anything until the jobs are done is the biggest motivator.

What age did you start having your kids do jobs? What age appropriate jobs do they do now? Is there any valuable lessons you've learned while having your kids help out? Have your kids surprised you at how much they are actually able to contribute?

Let's be friends!

Cleaning the House is Fun to Do! Part 1: Chore Chart Tutorial

Okay, so last week I showed you my kids cute wallets that I made them with a promise to show you how we handle jobs here at the Making the World Cuter house.

Now let me just start out by saying that we have tried a LOT of things in this house to get the job done.

Almost every summer I would make a new fun chore chart with incentives and 'punishments' to go along with them and nothing worked. They would last for anywhere from a week to a month with varied enthusiasm.

We took a break from this to try the online job chart for a bit...but it annoyed me that my kids always wanted to get on the computer to mark off a job...that may work better for older kids, or those who have their own computers. But for me...not so much.

This works.

At least for us.

I would love to hear what works for you in the comments, so that other parents looking for other options to get their kids to pitch in can find those ideas!

Today I am just going to show you how to make the initial job chart.

I took regular printer paper, markers, contact paper and some adhesive magnet strips oh and some construction paper in my kids favorite colors that I didn't take a picture of.

I used to have each of the kids have ten jobs each...but I found that one; I was giving them silly jobs just to make it to ten, and two; the kids got bored with it on some days.

I condensed it down to five more general jobs rather than specific jobs.

Let me explain.

Rather than giving them;

-Shower

-Get Dressed

-Eat Breakfast-

-Brush your teeth

I now just give them a basic "Get Ready" job that encompasses all of that.

For the jobs, I drew easy little pictures on the piece of paper in about an inch and 1/2 square.

I gave all 3 kids the same 4 jobs and then they each get one more that is fitting to their abilities.

I only drew them out once in pencil and then made a couple copies of them. I cut them out and glued them to squares of their favorite colors and colored them with markers.

I then made a simple envelope with a piece of heavier double sided card stock and stapled it together.

I covered the jobs in contact paper to laminate them and then cut the magnet strips into little pieces and attached them to the back. Easy.

I put them all on a magnetic dry erase board and hung it at their eye level in the hall by their bathroom. It's not in a place that most people will see, but it's in a spot that they will see throughout the day.

It would also work to put the whole thing on the fridge or any other magnetic surface.

As a job gets done they just take it off and stick it into the envelope.

We have been doing this pretty consistently for over a year and it is still working.

I have had to make some changes to the jobs like I said, but the concept has remained the same.

Tomorrow I will share a little bit more about what their jobs entail, I don't want to overwhelm you with a novel sized post! :)

What are your favorite job charts? Do you have an online source? Let us know what kind of job charts have worked for you...or what hasn't worked for you...

Let's be friends!

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