Children earning extra cash (need ideas)

[tiggerlover]

My DS is 8 and does not receive an allowance. He does basic chores around the house because he is part of the family (ie - make his bed, set/clear table, empty trash and bring in the trash cans). There is a new Pokemon game for Game Boy coming out in a few weeks and DS would like to earn some extra money to buy it. I am looking for ideas of extra jobs he could do and an approximate value for the chore. Yesterday he seperated all of the laundry into colors for washing and when the whites were done he paired up the socks and turned them right side out....he did a great job. Today he wants another job, but I am not sure what I should have him do. Any ideas?

 

[stinkerbelle]

hmmm...
yardwork? (picking up stray sticks/pulling weeds)
do you have a dog? (poop patrol!)
dusting? (hand him a swiffer duster...very easy)
cleaning out the cars? (trash/dusting)

wow - i can't wait to have kids...i'd have a ton of chores for them! hehehe

j/k!

 

[hipporina]

If you have any hard floors (ie linoleum or tile) you could have him scrub them. My ds 8 actually thinks that is fun. Of course, he and dd were fighting over who GETS to clean the bathroom, so I'm not sure what is wrong with them

Some more ideas:
Clean windows
Weed garden / flower bed (if you have one)
Scrub the fronts of your cabinets
Clean bathroom
Vacuum / Sweep

Thats all I can think of right now. As far as how much they are worth, that is up to you and depends on how hard you want him to work for it and how your family feels about that much money. When DS 8 broke his Game Boy, he had to earn the money to replace it. His chores were not worth very much on that one. For one, $60 is a LOT of money for us. More importantly, it needed to be hard for him to learn a lesson from it.

 

[BedKnobbery2]

Like you, my sons have some chores they are just expected to do because they are part of the family; those include cleaning their rooms, making sure their laundry gets down to the laundry room, emptying the dishwasher, getting their dirty dishes to the sink, and picking up any toys or clothes they've left out of place, putting away their clean laundry. None of those chores are "earning" chores.

When they want extra money, I have them do the following:

clean litter boxes (we have 4 of them) for a week: $3
Lugging laundry baskets upstairs for a week: $1
mowing the lawn: $10 (only my oldest can do this)
raking the lawn: $5 each or $10 if one of them does it
cleaning the bathrooms (2 of them): $5 (and this means cleaning it to my standard, not theirs lol)
vacuuming: $2

Those are the usual ones for us.

 

[marydmjj]

Wow. That is impressive. My DS-8 has to be nagged to finish his chores. We give him $5/week to feed the cats/dog every day, take out garbage and recycling every other day, empty bathroom garbages 1x per week, and vacuum living, dining and family room 1x per week. I've paid both DS's 8&4 1 penny for every pinecone they pick up out of the yard. That works out to be a couple of dollars each (lot's of pine trees here).

 

[tiggerlover]

Some great ideas, thanks. DS did clean the two tubs in the house, so that was a start, but he has given up on his quest for the afternoon to go play. I can't blame him...lol. I would love some more ideas for tomorrow though, thanks!

 

[Parkhopper]

I often prepare for Disney trips by paying my DS 9 to read books that are good for him to earn his own spending money. I pay more for books that I deem as "classics" and more for the longer books. As far as I am concerned, the more he reads, the better! We BOTH win on this one!

Suzi

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

I use a chore chart like the one at www.ididit.us for my kids. They earn tokens that they trade in for treats, privileges, or
(at the moment) Disney Dollars for our upcoming trip. They love it and it's so flexible that you can add new chores weekly. Some things are normal routines but others are extra chores like:

setting the table
clearing the table
sorting laundry
folding laundry
put away laundry
pick up toys
feed the dog
water the plants
check the mail

 

[leahannpen]

I don't want to hijack your thread, but it reminded me of something I'm going to start getting for kids on their birthdays and for baptisms and such. I think this is pretty neat.

I guess you can get it here if anyone is interested. They have different colors.

Again, sorry if I went off topic.

 

[Otto's Doll]

Just a bump for you, Debbi.

 

[Pin Wizard]

I adopted a friend's way of doing things. No allowance for what DS's jobs are. But if he does something I normally do, he'll make some money.

 

[mommytotwo]

Have him make you breakfast or a snack and give him a tip.

 

[Tiziminchac]

Maybe he could get a job for Nike? Or maybe Kathy Lee is hiring?

 

[Laklia]

We can't get Disney dollars in the UK, so I want to print some IOUs with Disney characters (or Universal as we're ging there too). Does anyone have any free download sites? I want to print them out so they need to be non-animated.

I like the idea of paying more to read better books - my son is a very slow reader, amybe it would encourage him to read more.

I love these boards! (But how will I remember everything....)

 

[hipporina]

Originally posted by Laklia
We can't get Disney dollars in the UK, so I want to print some IOUs with Disney characters (or Universal as we're ging there too). Does anyone have any free download sites? I want to print them out so they need to be non-animated.

Before our last trip I printed my own "Disney Dollars" for my kids to earn. I couldn't stand the idea of them losing real money, so I gave them the fakes and exchanged them for real ones when we went. I can't remember where I downloaded them from, but if you PM me, I will email you my MS Word file that has them in black and white.