Saturday, March 9, 2013

Incentive for Young Children

I was inspired by this blog post, by a mom who came up with a genius idea of how to motivate her children to clean their rooms without her constant nagging!

She uses a jar full of coins for each child and if their room doesn't pass inspection every day, a coin is removed. At the end of the month, the remaining coins are theirs to spend as they please.

Now, my kiddos are too young to appreciate a jar of coins with all its possibilities. In addition, I don't think I'm quite ready to give money to my kids to spend frivolously.

So, Skittles it is!

My twist on it is:

At the beginning of each week, I'll put 10 (?) Skittles in a separate jar for each child.

Each time they are asked to tidy up, be it the living room, their bedroom, etc. a timer will be set. If the area is not tidied in the allotted time, a Skittle will be removed from their jar.

Additionally, I'll come up with a voluntary chore system by which they can earn a Skittle or two for their jar by completing the chore to my satisfaction (number pre-determined by the effort required to complete the chore).

- Dusting
- Matching socks
- Sweeping the floor

You get the idea.

On Sunday, they will be able to eat all the Skittles in their jar.

I welcome feedback. Have you tried something similar? How did it work for you?

No comments: