Thanks to the video game playing I’ve been doing lately, I’ve been more attuned to video-game-like things in the real world. Which is why Handipoints, a new venture by a former co-worker of mine, strikes me as an interesting idea. It’s a reward system for parents with school-aged children, to motivate them to do their chores – the parents assign tasks to the children, who can complete them in exchange for points. These points can then be redeemed by the children for a list of potential rewards, which the parents also select. A bit like ‘experience points’ for your childhood – except instead of gaining a level for your chores, you’ll get a toy of some sort.
It looks like a nice, low-risk venture – the rewards are paid for by the parents, but they receive a discount for ordering the rewards online through the Handipoints site, from which I assume Handipoints also receives a commission. And if the site grows, I assume there’s going to be opportunities for display advertising. I’ve got no children – thankfully – but if you’ve got some and you’re looking for ways to get them to do things around the house, you might want to check it out. For the right children, the rewards system looks like it could be more effective than an allowance.
Now if only there was a grown-up version for me. What can I get if I do the dishes every night and clean the bathroom on weekends?
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Hi Greg, we just recently launched a new version of the site. We’ve greatly improved the Chore Chart and Allowance management tools for the parents and added a virtual avatar game for the kids. Kids can do chores to earn bonus points that they can use to adopt and dress up their own cartoon cat. Check it out at http://www.handipoints.com/printchart.html.