When I showed The Chore Board: A Helping-Around-the-House Game to my 10 1/2 year old daughter Amanda, she immediately began unpacking the pieces and looking at the instructions.
“What are some chores I can do, Mom?” she asked. I reminded her about the chores that are on her regular list: cleaning her bathroom each week, unloading the dishwasher as needed, keeping her room straight.
She didn’t look excited, but reluctantly added them to white board list that was part of the game board. “Are there others I can do?” I added on some things that I’m always asking her to do, such as put her clothes away (instead of leaving them on the chair in her room where I pile them) and take out the garbage.
“What about Kyle?” she asked, moving on to the next section of the board. I reminded her that he feeds the dog, does the silverware from the dishwasher, sets the table, and makes his bed.
The game is magnetic, and it has stayed put on the front of our fridge for several weeks now.
Why does this work? Well, the game suggests that a mutually agreed upon incentive is offered when the child reaches the end after moving one square per chore (There are also fun squares throughout the track, such as “Do two chores in an hour and move forward two squares,” and “Trivia Question.”).
It’s taken the nagging out of helping around the house, because the kids can see their reward approaching. It’s also brought out some competition. If Amanda sees Kyle’s piece moving forward quickly, she wants to be sure that she has the opportunity to do some chores as well. I am always ready with a suggestion or two to help her out.
Summer is a great time to start new habits. See if The Chore Board Game might cause your children to be a little more willing to help out around the house.
Jennifer Donovan blogs at Snapshot about life in Connecticut with her family. They all would much rather be reading a book than doing chores.
Chronicle Books has donated two games. If you’d like to win one, please leave a comment here (U.S. and Canadian shipping addresses are eligible).
Click on the banner above to enter our other Summer Fun Giveaways. All winners will be announced on June 11.
I’m always looking for ideas to encourage chores being done around the house.
What a cool way to make chores fun…I would love this!
Chores without nagging? Remembering whose turn it is to do what? Brilliant! Sign me up, please.
We love games……
I love this! What a great idea!
i sure could use this 🙂
I would love the chance to win, thanks.
great motivating idea
This sounds like a great idea! This would be great for when my kids are helping out around the house!
What a great idea for a board game.
My daughter loves games!
We would love to win this. It would be helpful at our house.
mercsmercado at yahoo dot com
Thanks for another great giveaway! -ChantelleSabino at mac dot com
Oh my goodness, this looks like so much fun!
this is a great idea for a game!
Id love to win this, maybe we could get this house clean. LOL, Thanks 🙂
I really like the idea~!
I can see my kids laughing at me first, and then I think might work. I would love to give this a try, my house seems like it is messy again before I finish cleaning it!
this would help!
i follow
Great idea!
Please enter me 🙂
This is great way to get kids to do chores. They need a good behavior game like this for classrooms. I sure could have used one when I was teaching.
I would love to see how this works. It sounds like a great idea.
We need this!! Please, please! 🙂
What a wonderful idea, we’d love to have it! 🙂
I adore my children but when it comes to chores it is like pulling teeth. This would be such a great way to make doing chores fun. Well, maybe not exactly fun but I know that if they look at chores as a game, it will make getting them to do chores so much easier!
Board me!
This could be just the key to motivating my children to help around the house!
i’d love to win this. we are a family of 6 and need more organization.
Thanks for the GREAT giveaway
please count me in 🙂
I am willing to try anything to get my kids to help out around the house.Thanks!
my daughters would enjoy this.
This would be useful to my best friend who has 2 kids and are constantly fighting about doing chores.
This looks fantastic! I’m trying to figure a way to incorporate chores with my 4 & 6 year old!
Anything to help make chore time fun would be great. Thank you so much.
This is so neat!
This could help in our house!
looks like it would be a great help
Please enter me into the contest. Thanks!
What a wonderful idea, wish this had been around when our kids where younger, perfect for our grand daughter though!