As my daughter gets older (she just turned six), she is becoming more defiant and less of my little angel. I know it is all part of growing up, but morning “episodes” do not make a great start to the day. I am so over the punishments and threats and am thinking that maybe positive reinforcement may work better. I have been pondering a chore or behavior charts because my daughter is very goal oriented and I think this method would work well.
Sounds easy, right? Well, being that we are getting towards the end of the school year, our lives have become increasingly busy. I have not been able to find five minutes to go buy stickers and poster boards to create the charts! Recently, I learned about a new website to design and customize chore charts for your kids (and tweens) that is completely FREE! GoalForIt.com provides a way to clearly lay out goals for your child and rewarding positive behavior.
I created a free account for my daughter and choose a pretty pink “rockstar” background (it’s gotta be cool, right?). There were many backgrounds to choose from for both boys and girls as well as more mature layouts for teens and tweens. Next, you can choose from pre-made tasks such as “Clean My Room”, “Get Ready for School”, “Take a Shower” or “Eat my Veggies.” If you have a special task that your child needs to work on, you have the option of customizing your own graphic. Next, assign a value to tasks which is called “moolah” on the site!
Once your tasks are in place and values are assigned, you can decide on the rewards and how much “moolah” it takes to purchase the reward. For example, I made each task with 5 points. My daughter will need 200 points to earn a trip to the movies and 100 points to earn an extra 30 minutes past bedtime on a Saturday night. This is completely customizable to fit your specific needs or ideas. Once your chart and rewards are in place, you can print the chart to display in your home, or leave online.
When you child successfully completes a task, put a sticker in the spot and “moolah” appears in the piggy bank for your child to save. When enough “moolah” is accumulated, your child can purchase a reward! I am so happy to have found GoalForIt.com. I feel like this will be a great success with my daughter and can’t wait to unveil the chart tomorrow!
