Teaching responsibility with reward charts – here’s how

We love creating printables here on KiddyCharts. Many of those printables bring fun and learning to your kids’ lives. But some of the printables that are our favourites are those that help your family live an easier life. In today’s post we combine our love for reward charts and parenting by helping you learn to use reward charts for teaching responsibility.

Using Reward Charts for Chores

Reward charts are a great way to get your children in the habit of learning cause and effect. With reward charts you can add a list of chores that your kids need to finish by a certain date. Once the chart is complete then your kids get their reward.

Why are reward charts better to use than simply talking about what needs to be done?

Well, there are several ways. One important way for kids to learn responsibility is to be accountable. And accountability is easy when there is a chart that clearly states what needs to be done. A child will learn to be accountable for themselves when they know what the boundaries are. For example, you cook and they pick up their plates. If they are old enough, they can put it into the dishwasher. You get the point.

Instead of having to nag your kids about picking up their toys or making their bed, you can leave it with them. It doesn’t always start off smoothly, as it tends to be easier to just yell at your kids to get things done. But once you get into the swing of things, it will work.

I have used this method to let the kids know that if they expect their clothes washed they need to put it in the laundry bin. Or if they want money to go out with friends, then they need to earn it. The best thing is that you can start at any age with age appropriate chores and tasks!

It sounds simple enough, and it is! Honestly, the sky is the limit. You can create your own reward chart with our customisable reward/behaviour charts.

Using behaviour charts for good behaviour

Sometimes things are just as simple as getting our kids to pick up after themselves. But then there are occasions where you need to find creative ways to help a child that has behaviour issues improve that behaviour.

Using reward charts for behaviour can help in so many ways. You can give your kids a sticker for anything they do that can be considered “behaving” – like doing their chores. But I have a better idea.

To me, it’s about “catching” your kid in the positive behaviour act. This works to make a child more responsible because they won’t be able to manipulate the situation and behave only when they want something.

Using reward charts to teach financial responsibility

Responsibility comes in many different ways, and a very important one we should all teach our kids is financial responsibility. Why is financial responsibility important? Simple, it’s a life skill that can set up your kids for success!

Sounds daunting, but it needn’t be. You can create a reward chart to teach your children financial responsibility by using our reward chart template. You can create your own by choosing your theme, selecting “star coins” as the fill option, and going to bonus in categories and choosing bonus stars.

Once you have your financial responsibility chart your kids can track their pocket money easily by keeping tabs of their starting balance, what they’ve spent, what they’ve decided to save, and keeping things as is if they chose neither. There really are many ways that you can get creative with this!

If you are looking for more printables to help your kids be more responsible then you will enjoy these posts:

• How to make learning fun with reward charts can help if you need to focus on kids who need help in school
• We have seasonal reward charts, like our Christmas reward chart
• If you want to hear why I think reward charts work this post is just what you need – Do reward charts for kids work?
• The Stay at Home Mom Survival Guide has some tips for teaching kids responsibility at home
• Meaningful Mama has a list of books about responsibility for kids that are a great way to introduce responsibility.
• Have pets? Then teach kids responsibility in dog walking

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We’ve enjoyed sharing this post with you! Let us know how you teach your kids about responsibility in the comments below. See you next time!

Helen

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