The Shared 15 Continues

Wow it has already been a month and a half since I blogged about The Shared 15 and the QR codes that we are using in the house- I had every intention of coming back in a couple of weeks to let you know how it was going.
I bet you thought, "Hmm- it came and went and they aren't doing anything with it anymore". "It turned into a flop"

The Mr. and The Not So Littles thought the same thing! They were convinced that Mom would make us play along - I even overheard him say, "Just go with it". {insert shock face here}

I guess we (I) have tried lots of ways to motivate them in the past. Like I said before, there were charts and lists and jars- full of chores. There was money and game nights and pick a dessert rewards. But nothing really S.T.U.C.K.

Until now.

We are rounding the last corner of February and here we are- still going strong!
There have been a few tweaks made, but overall it is still the same concept!
In case you are with me for the first time (hope you'll come back) or you have forgotten- here is the very quick jist of it:

The Shared 15 means that IMMEDIATELY following dinner EVERYONE in the house gets up and participates in spending 15 mins of their day cleaning a SHARED space in our home. It could be the bathroom, hallway, staircase, living room,- anywhere that is not just our own bedroom basically.

The QR codes came into play with how they are rewarded for their work. I'll link the last post here so that you can read more about the codes.

We are still using the same calendar and I still number each child with 1,2, or 3 for the day. This will determine what job they are doing. It was a bit tricky at first to set it up, but then I approached it like I was creating a rotating center chart.....using my teacher brain helped me out.

This is the calendar. I made a much easier way to see who has what on each day. It really is simple. 1 and 2 are the same tasks everyday. It is 3 that is different. Three are the jobs that don't need to be done everyday but do need to be done often.
So I made sure I had descriptions of what I expected.

1 is the only one that is gender biased. I don't think she should have to clean the toilet they share and I don't think the boys should have to wipe her hairspray off the vanity.

You just can't beat it.

Take Sunday there for instance- right after dinner everyone gets up- One child heads to the bathroom to clean the toilet and shake out the rug, another grabs the broom and starts sweeping from the hall to the back door and looks for thinks that don't belong in our shared space, and the last one picks up the dogs' feeder and waterer- washes it in the sink, refills, sweeps up the area where the food goes and then replaces it.

And it all "just happens" . I don't have to say anything other than "Ok, let's get our 15 knocked out".

Now if what you have to do for the day takes less time than the 15, you head to your room and work in there until the timer goes off.

yes, there is a timer, Littlest Little made sure of that!!

 

And on Fridays, they all bring their ipods and iphones in to scan the QR codes  for their rewards for the week. We write them down on the calendar and when they cash them in- we draw a line through them. Bing-o Bang-o Done-zo!

 

We are looking to add a few different rewards- to switch things up a bit- they are older than the "play a game together" or "screen time" rewards, so they have things like iTunes songs, movie rentals, small amounts of cash, free chore day, free laundry (they LOVE THAT ONE)..

 

It really has been a huge success for us.

We had the 15 years ago, but they were too small for what they did to really count and take a load off of me. Not to say that it went unappreciated, but my burden of cleaning was not significantly reduced.

Now it is a completely different story!!!

We do the kitchen after the 15- everyone has a regular unchanging part of the kitchen, so that goes pretty smoothly and is usually rather quick.

When that is finished- most nights no later than 6:30, we have the rest of our evening to enjoy a neat and tidy home in our shared spaces!

It is truly a beautiful thing! And there are 5 of us- so that's 75 minutes of work EVERYDAY. That's - hold on let me get my calculator- 525 mins a week - which is the same as almost 9 hours of cleaning a week!!! AMAZING! (They hate when I bring that up).

 

His laptop that I use now is old and evil- so I created the Shared 15 chart on the worst word processor ever- known to man- really- it sucks. If I linked the editable doc here that was made on his laptop, it would probably show up in some weird non existent language with lines in all the wrong places. But it does allow me to save to a PDF. So I am linking the PDF- and if it is something you are interested in, you could remake it to fit your needs.  Sorry that isn't easier.

The Shared 15 Chore Chart

 

As far as the QR codes go- the ones we are currently using are in the previous post

 

It has been especially nice to have everything so neat since we have been cooped up in the house for 10 days. Snow, ice, flooding, more ice, wind chills have all been culprits of what has kept us home!

 

This last part I have to share- It is one way I have kept busy and sane in the last few days.  Which you have already seen if you are following my Etsy's Fanpage or my Insta

If you just can't stand the cuteness, My Etsy store is linked at the top of my blog!

Here's to hoping that we head back to school soon!!! (Said everyone mom of three after 10 days EVER!!!) HA HA!

 

I plan to update you on The Shared 15 and any changes we make. I'll also be sure to post any updates to the QR codes we are using! I would love to hear about it if you give it a go- and see how it works for you!

I also plan to share how the Not-So-Littles help me out with Instant Lunches- Another lifesaver we have going on. There are others, too!

So stay tuned and stay safe.

 

I'm SUPER Excited!!! (Can you tell?)



Happy New Year!
 

It was a non-exciting ringing in of the New Year around here! Littlest Little was the only one who went to a party- and I fell asleep 13 minutes before the ball dropped.

There weren't any big resolutions this year around here either. I've done that in the past, and I feel like I stick with things a little better if I don't make it a resolution! (Kind of like reverse psychology. On myself.)

Over this break though, I have noticed that we have gotten away from all of the pitching in the way that we used to. It's kind of hard to make that judgment when you have wrapping paper and decorations and new gidget gadgets everywhere, but trust me, I could tell.

We were riding in the van one day and I was thinking of how I could get The not so little Littles to participate like they used to. It used to be so easy. We had charts and allowances. Ya'll, it used to cost me mere pennies to get clothes picked up and towels folded and put away. Pennies!!



 

 

And then there were cards that moved from one side of the chart to another. We also had magnetic charts. As they grew, they outgrew them. Times changed and before I knew it, I couldn't get a toilet scrubbed for a shiny quarter anymore. (Who am I kidding, right?)

 

 

So I thought about how to incorporate something that is relevant to them. And I saw it. Right there in front of me. It was staring me right in the face. Actually, it was stuck to my shoe on the floorboard. . It was the receipt from grocery shopping. On the bottom of the receipt was a QR code. And I had a brainstorm!!!!

 

I thought, "What if I turned their rewards for chores into QR codes?" That way they would have to scan it to find out what their reward was. I figured this would be "fun" for them. At least I was hoping it would be. I needed a motivator.

 

 

I put out the ALL CALL to my IG PEEPS to try and think of some rewards that would be either FREE or VERY CLOSE TO FREE- remember, there are three of them. And it can get a little pricey when they all have their hands out! My IG buddies did not fail me! They helped me think of some great ones, and I added a few of my own.

 

Let me tell you the amount of stuff that DID NOT get done while I was working on getting this set up for us!

 



I had to  figure out how I was going to use the QR codes. I created them (video below), moved them to one sheet, printed multiple copies, cut them out, and then placed them in these trading card pages. I got them at Wal-Mart (near the binders) for $3 for 10. I added a link to those codes at the bottom as well. Now these are motivators for my children. Yours may be different. And that is why I added the video, so if these don't work for you - you can make your own. (Not trying to insult anyone's intelligence, but I am SUPER EXCITED about this and I want it to be SUPER EASY for anyone who is eager to try.

 

There are nine slots on each sheet. So I came up with nine rewards- one is actually a repeat . I added them to six different trading card pages, that way I could pull out a different one each week and no one would try to memorize where certain rewards were. Every Friday, they will each get to pick two codes to scan from the same page. These are the rewards that are there:

*Kitchen Chore Freebie (whatever their part of the kitchen is- one is unload, one is load, one is trash & table)

*One FREE chore day (The whole day - don't even have to participate in the "Shared 15")
*Mom will do one load of my laundry (they all do their own, so this is a treat for them)
*One app- ($1.99 or less)
*One Itunes song (there are two of these on this board)
*One book, magazine, or poster ($5 value)
*One 1-day Redbox Rental (movie or game) (My IG friend, Sarah, reminded me of all the codes they send me for free rentals all the time! Cha ching!)
*$3.00 (There is gas station about a mile from the house, the boys like to ride their bikes up there together and get candy or a soda sometimes- so the cash is good) 

(And I plan to update and change out rewards as I think of different ones)

 

They each have to participate in the "Shared 15" each day- plus they have to keep up with their own rooms. This will make the H-E-double-hockey-sticks that is "Saturday Cleaning" a breeze!

Now, What is the "Shared 15"? That is something we started a couple of years ago- and it WORKED. For a long time. And then life got crazy and shifts changed and it stopped being enforced.

So it is BACK!

 

IMMEDIATELY following dinner (before the dishes are done) everyone has to devote a SOLID 15 minutes to a SHARED LIVING SPACE. The living room, bathroom, dining room, hall, stairs. Anywhere that we all SHARE. This keeps everything so tidy and makes it really nice when the kitchen is finished and we can all relax. To make it a little easier to remember and to be fair (so no one gets stuck with the toilet all the time, I numbered three tasks and rotated the numbers. )

So there is a number next to their initial on each day. 

No. 1 if it's one of the boys, they have to Clorox wipe the toilets and sweep the bathrooms, if it's Chickadee, she'll have the vanity and trash.

No. 2 We only have carpet in the bedrooms, so you have to sweep the dust bunnies away.

No. 3 "Stuff Patrol" means- going through the living room and dining room and looking for and putting away things that don't belong there. Books, shoes, bags, toys, cords, etc.
And there are 5 of us- so that's 75 minutes of work EVERYDAY. That's - hold on let me get my calculator- 525 mins a week - which is the same as almost 9 hours of cleaning a week!!! AMAZING!



I filled out the whole month!

I wanted them to be as excited about this as I am, so we went ahead and "scanned" on Friday- just 1 though, since it was only half a week.

She was excited about her game (app) and Littlest Little is very excited that I did his laundry today! (And she is older now, but is playing the game to help keep the boys motivated. Plus, who doesn't love free stuff??!)

 

A note about Apps and iTunes songs. The Apps are easy to "gift"- they just need an email address. The songs, however, you have to make sure that they select a "single", so that you can "gift" them just the one song- otherwise you will end up sending them an entire album.

 



List of QR Codes rewards I am using.

 

And now for the video- Good Gravy.

While you are watching, you can play a game called count all the "uhs" and all the times Squirrels says "Super". WTH? I NEVER say "super"! I guess I was just "super nervous".

 

I know this was long post- can you tell I am pumped about this? The possibilities are endless!! I sent the list to several IG friends this week, I just couldn't keep it to myself! I hope they are all able to incorporate it somehow! I would love to hear feedback or even see how this works for your family!

 

 

Happy Scanning,
Squirrels