I got this idea from my friend Erin, and this system has been working pretty well in our family. I thought I'd share because I think it's good to have a variety of "incentive programs" so when the kids get bored of one, you have something new to try (or an old one you haven't done in awhile)--you know--keeps things fresh and exciting. :)
Back in February, I decided we needed a chage from the Fuzzy Jar that we'd been using for awhile. The Fuzzy Jar was a community jar, and everybody's good deeds earned fuzzies, and bad deeds got fuzzies removed. When the jar was full we'd take the family to do something fun like ITz or Hinckle Family Fun Center or the Dollar Theater. That worked fine for awhile, but I didn't think it was very fair, because what basically happened was Dallin & Daphne earned all the fuzzies, and Sean and Hayden got them taken out.
So when Erin told me about this reward system, I thought we should try it out.
It's the bead system. Every child chooses a color and they earn beads for good things they do (chores, piano practicing, reading books, helping without being asked, etc.) and they have to pay beads to earn privileges like screen time. Also, if they save their beads, they can earn big rewards. 100 beads earns them a special dessert out with mom and dad. 200 beads earns them dinner out with mom and dad. At 300 beads, they can choose to go somewhere fun with mom and dad, or $20, or sometimes they negotiate for some other prize, like a special lego set they've had their eye on . . .
In our family, the kids all have different bead strategies. Dallin works really hard and saves up his beads to 300 and cashes them in for the money. He's reached 300 twice since Februrary. He gets enough beads to indulge in some screentime almost every day.
Daphne earns her beads slower, but spends them slower too, since she doesn't care about computer games or playstation. Just recently, she's become pretty motivated about earning the beads, and is almost to 300. When she gets there she wants Mom and Dad to take her to HInckle Family Fun Center.
Sean is motivated to earn beads purely for screentime. He only earns up to 10 beads at a time whereupon he promptly turns them in for 45 min. of computer or playstation. Because of Sean we've had to add a few rules about screentime. You can only redeem screentime once per day, and we never have screentime before lunch. Since Sean only deals in increments of ten, he has become very brilliant at figuring out what numbers add up to ten. He knows that if he has five beads, he needs five more. Or if he has four beads, he needs three plus three beads. I've tried to get him to save up a little, but he has no desire to get even 1 extra bead. Maybe saving will come later . . .
Hayden is also motivated by earning screentime. But his math skills are a little fuzzy, and sometimes he gives himself 10 beads for playing on the computer instead of paying ten beads . . . so we're winging it with Hayden a little bit. I just make sure he does some work before he gets screentime.
So there you have it.
What would probably make it better is if I had some other smaller rewards that they could earn besides screentime--Maybe books or inexpensive craft projects. That will probably be the next evolution. But I just thought I'd share because it's always nice to have ideas to help motivate the kids to do their jobs.
