Reward Center

I picked up this (what IS this, anyway?) mail organizer-thingy at a garage sale a few weeks ago for just $3. It's metal; the black part is chalk-board and it's all magnetic.  It's hanging over the kids' bookshelf in our living room.

I turned it into our new Reward Center to help my kids focus on some particularly irksome habits.

I slid the kids' names into the label-holders and then cut some pretty little rectangles out of scrapbook paper and punched a hole in 'em. I added two glass jars (re-purposed cherry jars, actually)--one for each child, a bathroom cup (mod-podged with old newsprint to make it pretty) and some popsicle sticks. Then I hung a pretty do-hickey with a bunch of rules on it from the magnetic board. Confused?

Here's how it works:

The pretty little cards of paper hang off the middle hook. When I catch a kid being GOOD (this is not a punishment center, after all!), I take a little card and hang it under that child's name. At the end of the week, we see how many cards each kid has. For every card they've earned they get to pick a popsicle stick, which goes into their cherry jar. The popsicle sticks have rewards stamped on them: "massage", "bubble bath", "wagon ride", etc.

During the week, as rewards are redeemed, the popsicle sticks go back into the cup in the middle to be up-for-grabs again at the end of the new week.

It's working GREAT!  What earns rewards in my house? Monkey gets a card if she eats her dinner WITHOUT complaining, whining or getting up & dancing around. Bugger gets a card if she sleeps all night without wetting her pull-up; she can also get a card if she does NOT complain about having to go to school on school-mornings (but that's only happened once, so I'm not holding my breath on this one!).

 

.