The Magic Hat

I have found the solution to our chore time woes. It's simple, really. If I want my daughters to clean up, one of them needs to wear the "magic hat."
It all started a few nights ago. Cakes was a few stickers behind the others on the chore chart. The other three landed on the "star spot" and were able to pick a prize in the morning. By the end of the day Cakes was just one sticker away from picking a prize. I spent the day explaining to her that if she wanted a prize that day then she needed to do all her chores. When it was time for the final chore, cleaning up her toys, I was a little worried. Then I saw something magical. She was picking up each and every toy by herself. In fact, she told her sisters not to help her. She was wearing a beret that they have in their dress up clothes. She wore the beret throughout the clean up and took it off as soon as she finished. She happily picked a pair of Strawberry Shortcake socks for her prize. The next night Tortilla was the only one out of the four who cleaned up the toys. The common denominator? The beret.
I have no idea what it is about that hat, but for some reason, the girl who wears it is the girl who does the best job cleaning up. Hubby has joked that he's going to put the beret on one of the cats and see if any of them have a sudden desire to do housework. It's worth a try.