This is not my idea. Sugardoodle posted a picture of a magazine on facebook that had this idea submitted. I don't remember the name of the magazine and I can't find the post to share. The general idea is to use ping pong balls
to write out individual chores for your children and place in a beautiful container to keep on display. Knowing that a display of ping pong balls in my house would quickly become a disaster, and knowing my history of putting off projects until I had everything exactly perfect I decided to do it my way...
to write out individual chores for your children and place in a beautiful container to keep on display. Knowing that a display of ping pong balls in my house would quickly become a disaster, and knowing my history of putting off projects until I had everything exactly perfect I decided to do it my way...
Introducing.....
The Bucket-O-Fun!
1. I ordered a gross of ping pong balls from Amazon. I found it was much cheaper to buy 144 balls than a dozen here in town.
from Amazon. I found it was much cheaper to buy 144 balls than a dozen here in town. 
2.I used my wonderful new set of colorful Sharpie Ultra Fine Point Permanent Markers, 24 Assorted Markers and started to come up with every possible chore I could think of. Each ball had one chore or task. Some tasks took very little time and some took up to 20 minutes. I even threw some non chores in there to keep it fun, like sing your favorite song, dance for 30 seconds, read a book for 5 minutes, take a 2 minute break or trade chores with someone else.
3. I used the fanciest empty ice cream bucket we owned and tossed all the balls in. It was important that my container have a lid so I would be less likely to spill it.
4. Then I introduced this "fun new game" to the children. I am not even exagerating when I tell you that they LOVED it! The next day I found them playing "the game" on their own!
5. Each child has a container with their name on it to keep their completed task balls. In our case, we used 1 gallon zip lock bags tacked to our bulletin board.
6. The rules to the Bucket-O-Fun game are simple.
-You must do the chore or task on the ball you draw, no peaking.
-Mom has veto power if she feels a child drew a ball that was above their capibilities or wasn't a good chore at the moment.
-All balls can be traded in for rewards when all are done. Usually its one ball = one m&m or 2 balls = 1 hershey kiss....or whatever leftover candy is in the freezer.
I have MANY balls left over. I keep a few and a sharpie within easy reach so I can add a chore anytime one pops in my head.
Good Luck!
