Summer Chore Challenge ended over a month ago. Overall, I'd say it was a successful endeavor. The change we made with Aubree's grand prize (an event instead of cash) was insanely successful. She was highly motivated and intentional all summer long. In fact, she finished her first task ("write 6 blog posts") within the first two days of the challenge. Note to self, writing is too easy for that girl!
Not only did Aubree reach her grand prize, she also completed two extra tasks and made it to 12.
For her grand prize, she got to go to a Lindsay Stirling concert AND bring a friend. We met up with even more friends and had a fabulous evening. All three of these girls are violinists, which made the evening extra exciting and relevant.
Of course, being Seattle, it rained and we got pretty wet, but everyone had great attitudes and umbrellas to share.
There was a lot of giggling and laughing.
Lindsay Stirling put on a rockin' show. We didn't stay for the main headliner, Evanescence, because it was already late when Lindsay finished and the girls were giddy, silly, tired.
Thane and Graham also managed to reach the grand prize by the deadline. Thane wasn't nearly as tenacious this summer as he's been in the past, but he squeaked by just in time. Both he and Graham chose Legos as their grand prize.
Neither Bryce or I reached the grand prize level. Bryce was luke-warm about challenge all summer long. Many days he'd work hard, some days he'd say, "I'm not going to finish so why try?," and other days he'd say, "I will finish later." Unfortunately, we had a suuuuper busy last week of summer and we ran out of "laters" (I say "we
because that was my problem as well).
because that was my problem as well).
Bryce was incredibly close to finish. He got up to 9 and just had to finish a few more lessons in his language arts book. He was really upset that he didn't finish in time. He felt bad he let down his siblings and made it so we didn't earn the family party, and he was sad he didn't get the grand prize.
With tears in his eyes, he whispered, "Mom, did you know what I was going to do with my grand prize money? I was going to pay tithing, then take the rest to Grocery Outlet and buy groceries to donate to the food bank."
Isn't he the most tender-hearted boy?! It was super tempting to just let it slide and tell him he was "close enough," but my end goal is successful adults, so I held firm with the pre-established deadline. Ugh. Parenting is rough sometimes.
We had a busy, fun summer, but I appreciated the structure the chore challenge provided. I set aside some days as designated "chore challenge completion" days. Those days helped us focus on the tasks that needed extra time or assistance.
About a month into the summer it didn't look like we were making much progress (with the possible exception of Aubree). Mark, who is not a procrastinator, was sure we would all fail. I was much more optimistic (probably because of my years of successful procrastination), and most of them pulled it out in the end.
Bryce and I will have to curb our procrastination to be more successful next year.
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