Got Marbles?

I was reading the magazine Family Fun while waiting in a doctor’s office one day and came across a very interesting article. It mentioned a family that used marbles to get their kids to help with chores and things and that it worked really well for their family. I thought to myself, I have a ton of kids that don’t like helping with chores. I should try something like that. That’s when the wheels started churning and my brain hurt ~bad!

I sat down and wrote out a bunch of different chores (job list, if you will). It’s nothing fancy like my talented sisters would spin out, but it will do.  :)  Just a simple table with 3 columns. I then proceeded to put a marble amount on everything. Apparently, I am a bit too giving because Mike had me to re-adjust my marble amounts. I’m a bit too free with my marbles. Maybe that’s where they are all going. Haha

Then I wrote out some “Rewards” to “buy” with the marbles. I had the kids help me with these so they would actually want to use their marbles. Don’t worry. I was a bit too “proud” of my rewards and had to re-adjust them as well. I wouldn’t want this list to think it was any better than the Job list! Haha

Then I took the kids to Goodwill. I let them pick out a container to put their marbles in. Can you guess which one belongs to whom? I was surprised at the choices, but after they were picked, the universe made sense once more. The girls picked plain glasses (Emma's has a blue tint and Elaina's has a pink tint) to decorate with different jewels and trinkets. Josh picked a fish. He was sure to put overly large jiggly eyes on it and paint it to accent the many colors (or something like that). Jake was disappointed that I wouldn’t let him get a solid piece of ceramic. Then he found a Lord of the Rings glass and he was happy. Oh the joys of picking out your own marble container! Haha

Then we went to Dollar Tree and got the marbles. I had some, but needed a few more. Plus, we needed to look at what jewels and trinkets they had we could glue on the glasses. :) We found some colorful ones and some star shaped ones. Everyone wanted a star, so I made them worth 5 marbles and only given out for special things. Haha Way to trick those kids into thinking they were getting something special. :)

Emma wants it known that she is leading the pack. She finally saved over 100 marbles and just traded them in for $10 CASH! Josh wanted to make sure I mentioned that he would have over 100 marbles, but he spent 40 on extra computer minutes. Poor thing. Haha Yesterday, Elaina told me that she doesn’t like this new game (yep, that’s what she called it). But since Emma turned hers in for cold hard cash, I think she has changed her mind a bit. Now she is asking what she can do tomorrow for more marbles. Yeah. I think we will keep this system for a while!