Joey's Responsibilities

For Easter, Joey received the Melissa & Doug Magnetic Responsibility Chart from the Easter Bunny.  I absolutely adore Melissa & Doug.  Their company manufactures high quality and durable educational toys among other things, and their prices are reasonable.  Although battery-operated toys can be entertaining and educational, we're old-school.  We prefer toys that allow the kids to use their imaginations and have amassed quite a collection of Melissa & Doug.  Joey especially loves their Slice and Bake Cookie Set and Deluxe Easel.  I have been eying the Magnetic Responsibility Chart for years and I am thrilled that the Easter Bunny decided to bring it to Joey.

The responsibility chart has age-appropriate responsibilities for children of various ages, complete with pictures.  The responsibilities vary from personal hygiene to actual chores, so I feel like we'll be able to use this chart for many years.  The chart includes reward magnets (we call them stickers) that Joey can put on her chart when she completes a task.  Right now we're not offering any incentive for completing the responsibilities (the "sticker" is reward enough), but Joey would be thrilled with a visit to the Chikin Park or baking cookies at home.  In the future we can base Joey's allowance on the tasks she completes. 

Yesterday morning, Joey and I sat down and chose her responsibilities.  She chose:  say please and thank you, take a bath, get dressed, brush teeth, put toys away, get ready for bed, and show respect.  For Joey, showing respect means listening and not hitting.  I would have liked for her to choose "no whining," but I think that it"s important for her to "own" her responsibilities.  Yesterday she completed six of her seven -- unfortunately she was not a good listener and couldn't get a "sticker" for showing respect.

Notice how all of her "stickers" are green?  It is her favorite color.  The picture below is the bottom half of the chart with the rest of the responsibilities shown. 

The chart includes two blank dry-erase responsibility magnets to write your own.  Some of Joey's future responsibilities will probably be:  LISTEN!, do not hit, let your sister sleep, and eat your vegetables!