This is not Wednesday but I was too late to do this last Wednesday and so I'm just anticipating being busy next week and I haven't learned how to adjust my date and time to blog ahead. I think this WFMW is a really great idea so here's my contribution:
I am not promoting real gambling... but I read a book a couple of years ago about Teaching Children Music. (Actually I don't think I read the book I read the chapter pertaining to practising.) I took what I read and adapted it a bit and it worked! It is 'the gambling' method of getting your kids to work.
We've been employing the same method to get the boy's to keep their room clean and it has been 14 days with a clean room!
So, are you dying to know what I'm doing? I took 42 (21 @--and my last 42 envelopes) envelopes and distributed coupons (worth money and/or candy) in the envelopes 1-4 in each. EVERY evening we go over what they have done and if they have fulfilled the criteria they can choose an envelope. For some reason not knowing what the reward is is a bigger incentive than knowing that they will get x number of rewards per job. Potentially they can get 3 envelopes each night. 1 for their room being clean and bed made ALL day (no making it and then getting in it-Mom gets to enjoy the made beds all day). 1 for getting all their assignments from school turned in. Then finally 1 for leaving the bathroom clean after use. Ds10. is doing very well. Ds12 is struggling with it, but the room is staying clean. After 2 weeks it is still working. Ds10 has used some of his coupons to buy an extra treat from me. The rest were turned into cash; .12 each and they do the multiplying and refilling the envelopes, there are 40 coupons for each child. Ds12 elected to keep the coupons until the next payday (I think he didn't want his younger brother to know how few he had, this week he's working harder.) They helped design the coupons; The last set said 'good job' but this set says 'something' with a place for their name. This way they can open their envelope and say, 'I got something!' It was their idea, I would have said HOT DOG! or 'Sweet!' or 'Way to go!
We've been employing the same method to get the boy's to keep their room clean and it has been 14 days with a clean room!
So, are you dying to know what I'm doing? I took 42 (21 @--and my last 42 envelopes) envelopes and distributed coupons (worth money and/or candy) in the envelopes 1-4 in each. EVERY evening we go over what they have done and if they have fulfilled the criteria they can choose an envelope. For some reason not knowing what the reward is is a bigger incentive than knowing that they will get x number of rewards per job. Potentially they can get 3 envelopes each night. 1 for their room being clean and bed made ALL day (no making it and then getting in it-Mom gets to enjoy the made beds all day). 1 for getting all their assignments from school turned in. Then finally 1 for leaving the bathroom clean after use. Ds10. is doing very well. Ds12 is struggling with it, but the room is staying clean. After 2 weeks it is still working. Ds10 has used some of his coupons to buy an extra treat from me. The rest were turned into cash; .12 each and they do the multiplying and refilling the envelopes, there are 40 coupons for each child. Ds12 elected to keep the coupons until the next payday (I think he didn't want his younger brother to know how few he had, this week he's working harder.) They helped design the coupons; The last set said 'good job' but this set says 'something' with a place for their name. This way they can open their envelope and say, 'I got something!' It was their idea, I would have said HOT DOG! or 'Sweet!' or 'Way to go!
3 comments:
This is totally not gambling...its a rewards system and it rocks!
Clever idea! Thanks for sharing!
This is great and I am going to implement it with my current system of coupons. I need a way to let the kids actually earn money instead of "things to do" because they are saving for ipods (both have to earn 100 dollars and will be matched by relatives for the other).
Post a Comment