How to Motivate & Connect with This Clever Kids Chore App
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure statement. Thanks for visiting!
Chores are hard!
For parents. For kids.
It feels like a neverending clash of wills, personalities, and expectations.
For every member involved, chores can bring out the worst.
But, does it have to be that way?
Wouldn't it be lovely to have a resource to turn chore time into learning time? Not just life skills, but also homeschool academics wrapped up in relationship building?
There is a clever kids chore app that can help you motivate and teach as you build connections with your kids. Intrigued? Find out how Homey App has helped my husband and me instruct our boys in properly doing their chores, building financial knowledge, and adding to their communication skills.
Disclaimer: I received product for free and compensation for my time. All opinions are honest and a positive review was not required.
Why Our Family Needed a Kids Chore App
Oh, my stars! My five boys, husband, and I were struggling. S-T-R-U-G-G-L-I-N-G! Between homeschooling, work, and competitive soccer, our busy schedule had very few gaps that allowed for properly getting chores done. Sure, we went through the motions. But, truth be told, our house looked like a pig sty!
Plus, our boys needed to learn about finances and the value of saving. Recently, my husband and I were hearing too many requests for toys, games, and expensive soccer equipment. Time for our boys to learn about real life, work ethics, and goal setting with finances.
We needed help. Fortunately, I was contacted by Sarah at Homey App just in time! When she told me about this kids chore app that teaches about financial responsibility and money management through chores, I knew our family needed to give it a try.
As much as I wanted to believe that I had it all together and our family was on cruise control with chore time, it just wasn't so. I was being pulled in 53 different directions and not being consistent with assigning, reminding, and checking on chores. Then, I would end up doing everything. And being exhausted.
It was a downward spiral that needed to stop.
Our Family's Experience with this Kids Chore App
I am not a tech person. Admittedly, I struggle. Like, it's a miracle that I can blog and post on social media and such.
I was completely lost on how to set up and use this app.
And then my older boys and Sarah from Homey App came to the rescue!
When I read more about the Homey App and read the manual, I saw the light. (The Homey App glossary also helped me get a better understanding of how to assign responsibilities and chores.)
If you are tech-challenged like me, don't be afraid to reach out to Homey App for assistance! They were extremely helpful with explaining and showing me how to set everything up. And answering all of my silly questions that probably my 3-year-old could figure out on a Kindle!).
My boys walked me through how to set up and use the app (great opportunity for my boys to teach me!) and we got this kids chore app party started!
There is a free version of the Homey App that includes a few chore packs (specific for certain areas of your home) plus basic features.
You have the option to purchase a Premium Version on a monthly or yearly basis. Premium Homey App allows for:
- Connecting your bank account to safely transfer allowance and chore money directly to your child's savings account
- Multiple saving jars for each child
- Adding or deducting money from the wallet
- Customizable permissions
I felt like a pinball wizard, assigning chores, setting allowances, and working with my boys on creating "Savings Jars", one of our favorite features, explained best by Sarah from Homey App
All the earned funds (weekly allowance and chore commissions) go into each child's wallet, where they can set up their Jars - saving goals. These jars can use the popular "save, spend, donate" three jar method, or each of the saving goals can have their own jar (a jar for a new phone, another jar for a new bike, another jar for one charity organization, another for long term savings to be deposited on their bank account).
Hot diggety dog! My boys were going to start working towards earning their wishes!
Captain (15) has an interest in learning about computer repair. We have an old Play Station 4 that bit the dust a few months ago. He wants to buy a part and try to fix it. Cha-ching! $120 in his Savings Jar for a PS4 part. Great motivation!
Professor (12) has had his eye on a new pair of soccer cleats. Um, "quality" soccer cleats are not cheap. (At least, that's what I've been told. I only ever had clearance rack cleats when I played, but I digress...) So, $160 goes into his Savings Jar. (Yes, you read that right. $160 for soccer cleats. Shoot me now!)
Smiley (8) is our budding Bob Ross. This boy has a deep passion for painting and self-expression. His dream is to have a large easel, canvas, and palette with quality paints. (Again, cha-ching!) We estimated his Savings Jar to be around $100.)
Bear (6) has a Savings Jar to donate money to saving blobfish. He has pledged his earning towards the plight of blobfish. Fabulous ways to motivate and teach about saving money while donating to a worthy cause!
Xman (3) is just excited to have assigned chores and contribute to our family. He says feels like a big guy 🙂
I received this update on the Homey App concerning its Jar System:
While the app with chores, rewards, and banking is available since June, we're now launched a completely new version of the app that makes user experience much better and faster for busy parents and takes in account all that we learned in the past few months from thousands of families using the app. Homey now focuses more on helping kids set up saving goals and enables them to learn to manage their own money in the virtual world since it is getting more and more important for the kids to learn the value of a dollar even if they don't have bills and coins in hand. The new Jars feature in Homey resembles what families have been doing in the offline world for a long time and makes budgeting and financial responsibility easier.
How This Kids Chore App Has Helped Our Family
Overall, our family has had a positive experience with Homey App.
I'll admit that I was skeptical at first.
We've tried everything that I can think of to make chore time work for our family. Charts. Sticks. Index cards.
But, the boys are doing their chores. Their responsibilities and jobs are getting done. And our house is looking less and less like a pig sty!
Captain comes to me every single morning to report that he got an alert on his phone to do his morning responsibilities (not paid, but must be done before jobs, and can lead to privileges like a weekly allowance or daily screen time) and jobs (paid chores). I was surprised when Captain reported that he enjoyed receiving these daily reminders. When I nag remind him of his daily chores, I get a look. Surprisingly, my teen actually does the responsibilities and jobs assigned to him through the Homey App!
Professor, however, is a bit more grumpy in the morning. He needs a bit more time to wake up and "deal". Most of his chores are assigned in the afternoon or early evening.
Smiley, with his usual positive outlook, gladly took on any responsibility and chore assigned to him.
Bear does it all in the name of blobfish.
Xman bebops along and is happy to assist in any way he can (including creating more messes for his older brothers to clean up).
The Homey App has a few bonus features that helped my family that I think can help your family, too.
My Favorite Part Of This Kids Chore App
One of the best features of this kids chores app is the photo confirmation. Yup, parents can require a photo-proof of each chore and can set it so that chores need parent's approval. This feature alone has been glorious for our busy family!
I just can't be present to oversee all chores. There's no way that I can be five places at once. And, if you discover a cloning machine that makes that happen, get in touch with me right away!
Photo-proof of chores has surprisingly helped my older boys and me connect. Sounds weird? Yeah, I know. But, it has actually helped us build trust. I'm not longer doubting if they actually did a chore or not. They snap a pic and I check it out. Bada-bing, bada-boom! Chore is confirmed and they've earned credit towards their savings jar.
You see, when chores are assigned and there's a type of accountability, kids will do the work. As Sarah from Homey App reminded me:
Keep in mind that Homey is not here to keep your kids on autopilot. Parents who get the best results with Homey check on the progress of their kids regularly, help them set realistic goals, and most importantly: they keep their agreements when the kids reach their goals
I greatly appreciate that! Yes, I dearly need help in assigning and checking on chores. But, I don't want to just push my boys off and never have any interaction with them! I want this chore time process to be a relationship building experience. I want to be involved in my boys' lives. I just need a bit of help doing that 😉
Do You Need a Kids Chore App?
Please, please, please, don't feel bad if you need a bit of help with chores for your family!
Homeschool and family life is busy. As a mom, there's always so much to keep track of. And only so much time and energy.
If you are in the market for a kids chore app that can help you build relationships as you help your kids learn about finances plus get chores done, I highly encourage you to check out Homey App. Don't be afraid to contact them with questions; they were very responsive to my inquiries.
This kids chore app promotes long-term saving, teaches kids about banking (their app was recently updated to include the amazing feature of linking to bank accounts and automatically adding earned money to your kids' accounts!), and provides a tool for teaching responsibility. Homey App is available on App Store, Google Play, and Amazon.
How could the Homey App help your family?
Quick question! Does each child need to have their own device? Can one device be shared between a few different kids?
That is an excellent question! Kids can use a shared device. It's easy to switch between accounts. On the home page on the app, there are 3 black bars on the top right. When you tap on those bars, a menu pops up. The 7th option down has a smiley face and Switch account which allows you to choose between household members registered to the app. Hope that helps 🙂
We, too, homeschool and have kids running off in different directions for sports and extracurriculars (only three, though, not five!), so I read this entire post with interest. I really hope to win and even if I don't, I'm going to check out the Homey app. Thank you!