How to make your children excited to do their chores!

“Daddy, can you please add more chores for me to do?”

How did I get my daughter to beg me for more chores? I’m glad you asked, and the answer is simpler that you might think. It is an app called ChoreMonster. Are you skeptical that a simple app could revolutionize chore time? I understand, and I’m still a little skeptical myself, but after two days of my 7 year old begging me for more chores, I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve happened on a gold mine.

I had heard claims that this app could motivate children to do their chores, but I figured that they were either lying or on serious mood and perception altering substances. I consider myself to be a fairly well educated parent with a whole slew of parenting tricks to motivate my children, but I have yet to convince any of them to do more than one chore without the requisite whining, hysterical choking sobs, threats that they will no longer love me, saying that I am a terrible parent and that I clearly do not love them, and flat out refusal. When you add her two sisters to the equation, each with equal determination to thwart my parenting efforts, I begin to understand why some parents have their children taken away from them.

We have been using “punch cards” to encourage them to do chores. We print off cards with twelve circles that we punch out with a hole punch when they do a chore. When a card is full they get $3. This has helped to reluctantly motivate them to do chores, but I’ve never had them ask for another job. The punch card just barely mollifies them that there is at least a little value in what they are doing.

I installed ChoreMonster while at work, figuring it couldn’t hurt to at least try it out, created a few simple chores- fold your laundry, wipe the kitchen table and sweep the floor, pick up toys in a room, and empty the dishwasher. I assigned each chore a point value of 25 points, then created one reward- $10 for 1000 points. I wanted to keep the math simple for me and to mimic the reward from the punch cards. The app has its own internal motivation- you unlock cute little monsters for doing jobs, but that part of the app was buggy and didn’t seem to be working.

I installed the app on an old phone that my daughter uses to read library books on and showed it to her. She has a tablet and is quite used to navigating apps, so I did not need to do much explaining. I did explain that when she had finished a task she could mark it complete, but I would have to approve it, meaning it would need to be done to my high standards.

Imagine my surprise when she dove into the pile of kid laundry, sorted it, and had hers folded and put away within 5 minutes. She excitedly marked the chore done on the app, then promptly walked into the kitchen and began wiping the table with wash cloth and scrubbing sponge until it sparkled. She has NEVER done so well wiping the table before- usually a quick brushing of crumbs off and leaving the sticky residue from breakfast. Then she proceeded to sweep the ENTIRE kitchen floor from corner to corner.

I was already impressed, but she kept going. She opened the dish washer and was disappointed that the dishes were not clean- no we could not run a half full dish washer just so she could empty it. There were no toys to pick up, so she asked me to add another job to her app!

I added a chore to do the cat litter and no sooner had I added it then she was off and cleaning. Luckily then it was time for bed, so I had a good excuse to cut her off before she could burn both of us out. Last night she checked her app again and excitedly ran to do her jobs, without me asking or prompting at all!

I haven’t had time to set the app up on the 5 year old’s tablet, and I think our 2 year old is just too young to get it, but I am hopeful that they will be just as excited when the time comes.

Does anyone else have an amazing motivating tip to share?

Bribes

Tonight I was at work at my nursing home. I have a lot of residents with Alzheimers, and it can be very challenging to get all of them to bed on time. One woman in particular, went to the fire escape door furthest from her room right after supper. I noticed her trying to get out of the door, so I went to talk to her. I explained that it was a fire escape door and that she couldn't go out of it. She told me very calmly that "they" told her that she should wait by the door and they would take her home. No matter how much I reasoned with her, she said she was going to wait by the door. She wasn't having much success getting out of the door, so I left her alone.

The beauty (and tragedy) of someone with dementia is that their short term memory is so bad that you only have to wait a short period of time before re-approaching and starting the conversation from scratch. On my second try, I decided that maybe she really just wanted to go outside, so I tried to convince her that there was a much better way to get there. She didn't believe me.

My third try was talking about how she was probably tired, and "wouldn't you like to go to bed?" The answer was still no. I went to tell the nurses that I was still unsuccessful in getting her to bed. We all agreed that it would not be smart to force her to come down the hall against her will, since she could easily get out of control and start yelling and hitting. No need to do that when everyone else is in bed.

Then someone had the brilliant idea that I should offer her some food. This time my approach was totally different. I asked her how she was doing - fine.

"I was thinking that you've been down here a long time, and you might be getting hungry. We've got a bunch of snacks just down the hall that you might be interested in, like cookies, juice, bananas." (I knew that she loved bananas)

This time she said that yes, she had been getting a little hungry, and she was interested. She let me push her down to the snacks in her wheelchair. I gave her a banana, which she was very excited about, and then took her to her room where I got her bed and pajamas ready while she finished her snack. A few minutes later she was in bed and we said goodnight.

I am not quite a master at diverting attention in order to get someone taken care of, but it is probably one of the most useful tools in my job.

Why I love my wife

Jen loves it when I tell her why I love her. She likes to know what is unique and special about her that I treasure. Last night she did something for me that meant so much to me.

Most of you probably know that I am now working in a nursing home. I worked most of a double shift yesterday, which means that I was awake at 5am, at work by 6am, left at 2pm, got called to come back, and then worked from 4-10pm. There is no such thing as an easy or relaxed day where I work. There is always someone that needs changed, or fed, or cleaned, and I constantly run from one mess to the next. My feet and back were killing me by the time I was done. I knew that I was working this morning (at 6am again), so I rushed back home, showered, and jumped in bed by 10:45.

Jen was still up on her computer, but came to bed shortly after and played on her palm pilot for a while. Typically I am asleep long before she turns it off, but last night my mind was racing. I couldn't stop vividly remembering the noises and the smells that I was with all day long. I felt sick to my stomach, and decided then that I will avoid working doubles at all costs from this point on. I heard Jen turn off her game, and knew that I had been in bed for at least an hour without getting any closer to falling asleep. I this point I start to panick a little, knowing that I have only 5-6 hours of sleep, even if I could fall asleep now.

I told Jen how I was feeling, and she offered to read to me until I fell asleep. We have been reading a fantasy novel by Orson Scott Card called "Enchantment" out loud to each other. Her reading to me totally took my mind off of my day and allowed me to fall asleep. She read until I started snoring, and then, because she is Jen after all, she had to finish reading the section that we were on before she could stop.

I so appreciate her selflessness in taking care of me in that way. I love my wife.

Our driveway

I have been doing my studying for Biology in front of our office window, which overlooks our front yard and driveway. I have seen a large number of cars turn around in our driveway, since it is the first and most convenient spot on the street.

For some reason, I got the urge today to put up a sign saying something like "hope you had fun turning around." Is that weird?

Rift Valley Academy

I just noticed a video on YouTube that talks about the high school that I attended in Kenya. You should all check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHYmr3_qU5Y.

If you try to see it in the next few minutes, YouTube is down and under construction of some sort, so it won't be viewable.

Sovereignty

On Tuesday I prayed much more seriously and fervently than I normally do. I even fasted, which I have not done in years. I was bothered by the mediocrity in my life, and I was asking God to give me his passion in my life. I prayed about a lot of things, like my unsaved co-workers, but I also remember praying that God would shake up things in my life (only if He found it necessary of course - I don't really like trials in my life).

Apparently He found it necessary. On Wednesday morning at 9:30 or so, I was laid off from my company. This was the third round of layoffs, so it was not unexpected. In fact, there may be another round of cuts by the end of the year.

So, I am now looking for a job full-time. I don't know where this new path of my life will lead me, but I don't take it as a coincidence that I was laid off the morning after a day spent in serious prayer. My biggest concern now is that I will take the first "safe" job that comes along, ignoring the other plans that God may have for me. I am open to a change in my career, but I don't want to pursue something risky without His leading.

My wife brought up a good point yesterday. When God called Abraham, he did not call him to change his career (I don't know that there were many other careers open in that time period). Instead, Abraham was told to take his family and possessions and move to a new land. The important thing was that he was put in a situation where he had to trust that God would be sufficient.

I would appreciate your prayers that I keep God first in all of this. I have been reading from Isaiah in my devotions. Today I read chapter 12. It says "Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation." Wow, What a promise. It is so relieving to know that it is not me fighting the battle, but God.

Further in chapter 12 is says "...make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world." That is something else that I want to keep at the forefront of all of this. Since it is not me fighting the battle, I want to give the glory to God and make sure that his name is lifted high.

Dvorak followup

I have now had a week or so of practicing with the Dvorak keyboard, and I am still liking it. There are a lot of varying reports as to how long it takes to make the transition, anywhere from two weeks to two months. The problem is that “they” never say if they are using the Dvorak keyboard exclusively or not. I cannot use it exclusively because the programs that I use at work rely heavily on shortcuts, which are mostly under my left hand. Also, when I get really busy I cannot afford to take four times as long to type an e-mail.

I am hoping that by forcing myself to constantly switch back and forth, I will retain the ability to type with both layouts. However, as soon as my typing speed on the Dvorak keyboard gets anywhere normal, I’ll probably only type in Dvorak and use the standard keyboard for my applications. My typing speed is now up to 19 wpm. I actually did not test it before with the new layout, so I only know that I feel like I am typing more quickly. I am trying to decide what a “normal” speed would be for me, but I will probably just switch when I can type fluidly without pausing to think about where the keys are located. I think that once I get to that point, my speed will really pick up.

Right now, I find that when am typing on the qwerty keyboard too slowly, and I have to think at all about what letters I am typing, I will usually type the wrong letter. Luckily, I do not normally type very slowly or think about where the letters are at too much.

Did anyone else decide to try learning the new keyboard layout? It is so much fun, seriously. Now if only it where as easy to learn a new language.