New Year, New Wall Charts

I've been thinking for a while now how great it would be if OB had some money of his own. It would be great for his Maths, encourage saving for things he really wants, teach him vital life skills.

Let's be honest, it's really in the hope that once he's realised how long it takes to amass sixty quid he'll stop assuming he can have another football strip every time we are in the general vicinity of the retail park!

The only reason he hasn't actually had any money yet is my indecision. I want to give him pocket money just because I love him and I want him to have that nice thing. But then what if he starts to think that money just grows on trees? I want him to understand the value of earning money. Perhaps he could earn money by doing jobs? But then what if he starts to think that he only needs to do jobs if there's something in it for him? Don't I want him to help around the house simply because that's what families do?

As we started to look towards the new home education year, it seemed a good idea to put my mental wranglings to bed once and for all and just get on with it, so, alongside our weekly learning goals, I bit the bullet, and added daily and weekly job goals too.

OB is going to get some pocket money just because I love him and I want him to have that nice thing.

He's going to earn some money by doing three jobs each week. We sat down and discussed the jobs together and he seemed happy. If he doesn't do them, then he won't earn.

He's going to do three little jobs each day, simply because helping around the house is just what families do. We negotiated these too and so far (about a week in) he's excited enough about closing the flaps on his wall charts that they're still getting done. If they don't get done, we're no worse off than before, except that I might be too tired to sit down and play endless games of Ninjago top trumps with him because I've had so much extra work to do around the house. 

Natural consequences. I live in hope that one day they'll actually work.


P.S. If you've been here before, you might notice the blog has a new look. Suddenly Mummy celebrates its 6th birthday this month (I know!) so I thought it was time to give it a bit of a makeover! I'm still tweaking...