MAKE-IT MONDAY / MASON JAR PIGGY BANKS

I really wanted to have a chore and "you did a great job" incentive for my girls, especially for the two younger ones.  So I started thinking of ways to motivate them to clean-up, make their beds, to be good girls, and to not be brats in the grocery store, etc....  And I thought.  Hmmmmm. They really love to go to the Dollar Store every once in awhile to pick out little treats.  Yes! That's it! They need to earn that trip!  But how would they earn a trip to the dollar store?  Then it came to me! They could earn dimes. (I know,  it's 2012 not 1912!) My 5 year old will be starting kindergarten in August and we have been doing a lot more "Homework" to get her ready - that's why I started thinking about dimes, counting by tens and the concept of money.  For my 3 year old, it will simply just be for counting up to 10 and beyond.  Every Sunday they can take out one dime for their "Tithe" - offering at Sunday School - and once they have earned $1, we  can take a trip to the Dollar Store .  They can count out their dimes themselves, and pay for the items themselves, as well.  Can't wait to see it in action!

Here's how I made them.

I have so many mason jelly jars from my Mom's homemade Jelly's and Jams (the best in the world, by the way!) I chose three cute, smaller ones.

When I was looking for the tops and the rings for the jars, I found the 3 tops that I had saved from my friend's daughter's birthday party.  (The party favors were jars with cupcakes inside!) They were already painted black with chalk board paint and I thought that looked cuter than the plain tops. (It's easy to do.  Just buy a small jar of chalkboard paint and paint the tops!)


I then wanted to decorate them, but I needed to keep it simple so that we could unscrew the lids to open the jars for our trip to the dollar store. I just used twine, ribbon, scrapbooking paper (for the tags) and stickers for their initials.  A hot glue gun will come in handy to glue down everything. Then I used a screwdriver to punch the hole in the top.  Just hold the screw driver with one hand and use a hammer to tap the top of the screw driver.  Super easy and really cute. We've been using them for about 4 days, and they really love them.  And, I am not getting any arguments when it's time to clean up! Woohoo!