***Please note that after switching from several different hosts before settling on Blogger, the formatting of my pictures may not be as it was originally intended. I simply don't have the time to go back through years of posts in order to fix the orientation of the pictures. Sometimes a picture just shows a box of text in its place, but clicking on it will allow you to see the picture. Others, there may be no picture at all. I apologize.***

February 10, 2010

My Digital Studio...who said it's only for digital scrapbooking?

I sat down with my daughter Emma yesterday to make a "Weekly Chore Chart" using My Digital Studio for her and her sister.  I guess my cabin fever and lack of motivation to make them clean up all of their toys after 4 days of being stuck inside was my motivation for the chart.  Well, I HAVE to tell you this story about making the chart.

Emma was sitting next to me and telling me what colors to put where and what images.  I wasn't making it too complicated, but I took one of the Calendar Grid stamp images and rotated it onto it's side to create a chart - isn't that cool?!?!  I needed two charts though, one for each daughter, so I copied it and then pasted it and started to scoot it over to Sarah's side of the chart.  Well, I wanted them to line up exactly the same from top to bottom, so I turned on the grid that you can lay over your project temporarily to help line things up, and the poor child went from seeing 20 or so "chore boxes" to check off, to seeing hundreds.  She didn't know it was a grid, and she said in an upset tone, "I can't do THAT many!"  It was precious, and I laughed so hard.

Anyway, here is our little chart.  It is 8-1/2" x 11" in size and I wanted both girls on one sheet so that I only have one piece of paper on the refrigerator.  I will print it out once a week (as long as we all stay motivated) and they get a small reward at the end of each week.  They rotate some chores from week to week, and others are permanent (like make your bed, tidy your toy area, etc.).  Because the chores can change, I only put blank lines on the chart.  Each line will be filled with a chore, and since that's 7 things they're responsible for (only 5 are daily, 2 of each of their chores are "as needed" - ie. helping put away the clean dishes, dusting, etc.), one of the rewards they can choose is $2.50 each week that they do all of their chores. I figured by the end of the month they could have $10 - enough to buy a Barbie - and after 2 months of saving it would be enough to buy a "nice" Barbie.  That idea really motivated my middle daughter.  My eldest may save for something else, and that's perfectly fine.  I think our house has plenty of Barbies ;)  I think $10 a month in allowance is a lot for a 5 and 6-year old, but feel that earning an allowance and learning to save and even spend it is an important lesson, and a dollar a week wouldn't buy them much after a whole month of saving.  I think that since they're relatively young, their attention span requires a more quickly earned benefit for their actions.

So - if you thought that My Digital Studio was only helpful in creating scrapbook pages, it's not!  It can make cards, flyers, business cards, brochurse, calendars, posters (up to 12 x 12 in size), scrapbook pages, embellishments, blog headers, blog backgrounds, buttons and blinkies for blogs, and so much more!!  It can even be used to edit your photos and add watermarks to them for posting online!

If you live in or around the Dover (Delaware) area, let me know if you would like me to sit down with you and show you all that My Digital Studio can do.  You will be amazed!!!  Just e-mail me!!!

5 comments:

  1. What a great idea, Marie! And your little one is so precious!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is fabulous! What a great idea! I love how you turned the calendar grids!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Marie, that's brilliant!!! And I had to LOL at what your daughter said. (Still giggling)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Marie, this is such a great idea. You are so creative. I guess I need to sit down with MDS a little more. I did my blog banner with it and thought it was a lot of fun. But, your project blows my blog banner out of the water. I wish I lived in your area (after the snow melts of course, we've got enough of our own) to sit with you and have you tutor me with MDS!
    TFS

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi, Marie! I am trying to track down directions on how to do business cards using MDS. Can you help?

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for taking the time to leave me a comment. I appreciate it and thank you for adding a little sunshine to my day.

Marie :)