Uh Oh Box Chore List

Remember this little gem?

Boy I do! Talk about a Pinterest explosion. I had no idea that my little poem and sign for a Toy Ransom Box was going to be such a hit.

Thanks to all of you who facebooked and pinned this little project. I owe a whole heck of a lot of blog traffic to you.

Thanks for all the sweet words. They make my day every time I read them.

Thanks to all of those who picked up the Mama Bear reference, it is good to know there is a whole group of us paying homage to good ole' Mama Berenstain Bear.

AGAIN, thank you to all of you.

Now to your questions:


I had several of you ask about my chore list. In the original post I had both this Toy Ransom Box and I had chore charts and punch cards for my Little Men.

I wasn't sure which chore list you all were requesting, but I took a stab in the dark and guessed that you wanted the list of chores for the ransom bucket.

So I am giving you the option to download a pdf of the list of chores I use.

download HERE

You will notice I have incorporated regular chores, service opportunities, and physical activities. Hopefully this will give you a jumping off point if you were wondering what kind of chores to do.

Another question I got-

How do we go about enforcing cleaning out the box? Especially when there is apathy about getting the toys out of the box.

First, if there is a really special toy in the box, but the box has been full of other things for several days, then they have to clear out the other toys first.

Also, sometimes there is a general attitude of "Ah, who cares about those toys. We have more." Since it is most likely inevitable that this will happen, we also made the rule that the box has to be cleared out on a specific day each week. That way the toys don't just sit in there.

For us this is Fridays. Nothing fun happens until the box is cleared out. Everyone helps, regardless of who's toys are in there.

So I think that about covers everything.

We still are getting a lof use out of this system.

My boys are a lot more aware of when they leave stuff out. We seldom have to remind them more than once to gather up their toys. We simply have to say "Ransom Box" and they pick up their stuff.
Even amidst whining, it still gets cleaned up.

Haha...I said they cleaned, never said the complaining went away.

Thanks again everyone for all the love you have given this idea.
Thanks for spreading the word.
Thanks for sticking around and supporting my little blog.

I sure loves ya for it!

Chores: A Pinteresting Wednesday?

Everyone visiting from Pinterest, facebook, Google+,

carrier pigeon, or smoke signal...

Thanks for stopping by. Stay awhile and 

let's be bloggy friends.

NEW: Here is the link for the chores I use for

the Ransom Box

Me and the whole "A Pinteresting Saturday" haven't been getting along. The weekend comes and the last thing I want to or am able to do is blog.

However, I still need a solid excuse to accomplish a pin here or there from my pin boards. So many great ideas...I just can't let them sit there...or can I...hehehe...

Ehem...no. I have pinned most of them because I really do have intentions of doing a project, cooking a recipe, using a tip, getting inspiration, etc. You get the idea, I am sure!

So A Pinteresting Saturday is probably going to move  to Wednesday...any objections?

Anyone?

"Bueller?"

"Bueller?"

"Bueller?"

Anywho, I digress.

My most recent Pin-tastic projects have a common theme.

That theme-

get some child labor...
crack the whip...
lay down the law...
teach some responsibility...
pull a Mama Bear from the Berenstain Bears (seriously if you get this reference you MUST tell me, we are kindred spirits)...
put some order in our Summer every days...

In other words--

We are tackling the whole CHORE issue.

Our kids have had responsibilities before...but there has been a lack of structure.

I got tired of explaining why--

"If you take out the toys, well then you need to pick them up".

Don't get me wrong they eventually did it...most of the time...Still uber tired of saying it.

Finally, when I saw THIS, I pinned it and decided to accomplish it post haste.

So I went to handy dandy PicMonkey and created myself a fun little label, and wrote my own little poem, for my new toy ransom bucket. I also just typed out a list of different chores/ways they can earn back each toy they left out. I printed everything off. I cut the chores into strips and put them in an envelope. Then I taped the label and the envelope to the lid of the bucket.

We have already had our first ransoming. The boys woke up with this bucket FULL...I kid you not...they are still working to get everything back.

Thanks to left out toys I have already had my dinning room table and chairs cleaned, the bath toys cleaned, the TV shelf dusted, and I got to watch Oldest run up and down the stairs 10 times (yup some are active things).

I have warned my sweet Little Men that if the bucket gets full AND they leave out more stuff, well then that stuff is mine, period. That lit a fire under their fannies!

So if you have a similar problem here is my label for you. Save it to your computer then use for your own Toy Ransom Box!

Still on the subject of CHORES-

NEW: Link to CHORE LIST 

Thanks to THIS pin Hubby and I have been discussing our opinions of chores and the whole reward thing.

I will spare you our whole fascinating conversation and just give you the highlights-

-don't want them thinking they always have to get something to do something
-want them to recognize the responsibilities they have simply because they are part of our family
-want to reward them for "extras"

So with the whole "reward them for extras" in mind, I again headed over to PicMonkey and made our Little Men some fun punch cards.

EDIT 08/04/12- I am sorry but I am not longer offering the free download of the chore punch cards.

My free version of these punch cards, unintentionally from me, started taking

business away from the etsy shop I originally PINNED this idea from.

I am glad they got in contact with me and that I could right this wrong.

Please visit their Etsy Store-My Sweet Swirls. Their cards are professionally done

and super cute. Plus they are reasonable.

The Ransom Box sign and the Chore Chart are still available 

for you to print off.

Thank you for your understanding.

Our rule with the punch cards is that they have to finish their "no arguing" chores. This means they need to finish the chores that are their responsibility period. No reward. Their reward is that they have the most awesomest parents ever and we have provided pretty comfy beds and a whole mess-oh-food they can eat.

So once they finish their regular chores, they each have a list of extra things they can do for a punch. Once they fill a punch card they can turn it in for a reward...we have not gotten there yet.

There will probably be some adjustment to our Chore hopes and dreams, but for now this is our plan. Wish us luck!

I am also giving you the template for the chore chart I used. The original is shown first and then an example of my personalized version is below.

You can save the template to your computer. Then in PicMonkey click the "edit a photo" button. Pick this file then go to the text edit and add in your own chores...like I did here.

This is Oldest's

Whew! That was a lot of chore talk. If you are like us and weren't quite so organized yet, or you are just starting out and are looking for chore ideas, I sure hope this helped.

Here's to CHORES!