The Building Brows: DIY house construction & life of a large VT family living small

The last major component of The Building Brows's discipline system is the Daydo List. It's a daily check-off list for an entire month and is the springboard for the Chore Board and Privilege Ladder.

Kids start at the Daydo List with the goal of checking off each task for the day. Since chores are listed on the Daydo List, it reminds them to look at the chore board to complete what's expected of them.

I make the Daydo List on graph paper, but it could easily be done on a computer spread sheet.

At the top left, I write the name of the child
At the center I write "Daydo List -- [month] [year]"
I skip a row, and at the eleventh square from the left (depending upon your size graph paper), I start numbering to the right for each day in the month.
On the next row to the left of the numbers, I label the daily tasks down the side. These should only be ones they are supposed to do most days of the week.

Make sure you include "chores" in the list.

Some of our tasks include:

brush teeth
make bed
put away dirty clothes
pray
read/listen to the Bible
thank God for something
stretch/exercise
chores
shower

The Daydo especially helps kids maintain good hygiene.

Our kids all have a younger sibling paired with an older sibling in the good old buddy system. Since the Daydo doesn't include a lot of pictures, if any, it is the older buddy's job to help the younger buddy know what to do. This gives older buddies responsibility and a sense of importance in the family.

Most of my kids aren't thrilled with the Daydo because they aren't pencil pushers, meaning they don't like lists, so to help with this, I'm instituting a new feature where they will earn Xbucks for each completed task. Since they like computer and video games, one Xbuck will be worth five minutes of recreation time, redeemable for an equal amount of cash if desired. I'm hoping this will accomplish two things at once: 1. motivate them to complete the Daydo, 2. help regulate their computer and Xbox use.

That's it--The Building Brows Discipline System. I'm willing to answer questions you may have in considering this system or as you implement it. Click on my green envelope e-mail button in the sidebar to contact me.

If you decide to use any part of our discipline system, please drop me a comment or e-mail to let me know. I'd like to know how it works for you and what kinds of changes you make to adapt it to your family.