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Currently I'm trying to create on in excel, but I'm wondering if I'm re-inventing here. I would like the option to customise the chores and behaviors and the rewards and assign different score values to the chores/behaviors. Also since my daughter doesn't always have to do a certain chore or can't be evaluated every day on certain things the scoring should be flexible. For the scoring I would like to have the daily scores add up to a weekly score for a weekly reward.

Is this too much?

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    Is it realistic that the child will understand enough of your scheme, if you yourself have to use a spreadsheet to keep track of scoring the different values? Sep 7, 2011 at 17:56
  • @Torben - you're probably right... I guess I had to try and remember what it was like at 10 years old and I can see this would probably be too complex.
    – John
    Sep 7, 2011 at 18:30

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One thing to keep in mind, to work, your child needs to understand it. You didn't mention the age(s) you're dealing with so it's hard to say if that's overkill or not. (though to be honest, I'm tempted to say it is for any age level that this type of chart would work for.)

There are a lot of great examples on the web. Many of them follow the well used pattern of filling the chart to earn the reward rather than doing any kind of summation roll up.

Now you mention the different scores, I suspect because you have both simple stuff (brushing teeth before bed, picking up toys, etc) and harder stuff (doing homework, helping with dinner, etc) for your kid(s) to do. One solution to that type of problem I've seen (and actually was subject to when I was a kid) was two charts. When the simple stuff chart is full, you get a choice... a simple reward, or trade it for a mark on the big stuff chart to earn up for the big reward.

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  • My daughter is 10, is that too late to start this kind of thing? Also I'm sure she would understand the scoring, but I do like the two tiered chart suggestion.
    – John
    Sep 7, 2011 at 17:07
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We kept ours real simple: I printed up slips of paper that look like a coffee shop's loyalty program. There are two rows of squares: homework and housework. Each time she our daughter completes her homework or housework, she gets it stamped (just like a coffee shop). When the sheet is complete, she gets her pocket money. The idea is to keep is simple, fun and not intimidating.

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Instead of having a complicated system of points that are worth different values, simply make some rows longer than others, and retain the idea that a reward is earned when a row is complete. That will make it instantly visible that some rows (simple goals) require more work (more marks) to trigger a reward than others.

Cabbey's idea of trading/investing in marks on another row is cool, and older kids would easily grasp it.

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