My first experiences with money were at my sister Georgia's house. She watched me during the day along with her 4 kids, and we could all earn money for doing chores. The harder the chore, the more money... but the most you were gonna make was a dime. I was the only one disgruntled about the pay rates... I would push the vacuum resentfully, telling Georgia, "When I'm in the White House, I'm gonna hire
you to vacuum and pay
you a dime. Still, we were busy little bees and then we'd take our dollar or 75 cents to the store and live it up. And that was tremendously satisfying. Even if I just bought a piece of posterboard to decorate, I bought it with my chore money.
So I'm excited to think about starting my guys on some kind of money learning- I know they'll enjoy it, too.
I started Toby on a
bribe reward system yesterday. The goal, since I am a good parent, is to stop him from doing things that annoy me. The effect, however, will be a better behaved child, regardless of my motivations. I made a chart, with 6 tasks- staying in his room until 8 am, staying seated during breakfast, lunch, and dinner, staying quiet during quiet time, and dressing himself. Then, at the end of the day, if he gets all 6 stars, he gets money. Like, a nickel or a penny or whatever I have around, and we put it in a jar. That's the goal.
He is super motivated by reward, so he rocked it yesterday. Today, not so much. He wants to get it right, but he doesn't remember in time and then he's already gotten up or come in my room at 6 am or what have you. So here's the quandary. I don't want to start the day like, oh, you already broke #1 and so you won't get all 6 stars no matter how good you are the rest of the day. On the other hand, I don't want to be wishy washy and uncommitted
A couple ideas: he gets the reward for achieving 5 out of 6; or a graduated award system, (which sounds like too much work for me), or I remind him constantly... or what? Shoot me some ideas.
testing
ReplyDeleteSay, "go back to bed or your not gettin paid. Last chance."
ReplyDeletegood, good.
ReplyDeleteYou could jack up the rates for a day or two to encourage participation; then drop them back down and blame it on Obama. Everyone knows its his fault.
ReplyDeleteage-appropriate reward tactics... i don't know if waiting a whole day to "see" the reward will work at his age.
ReplyDeletehe has to mature into ability to "see" that far ahead....
perhaps each good deed should be rewarded each time done with a small reward (penny in jar) -
most kids wake and get up when they wake and get up... i've never heard of keeping a kid in their room until a certain time... but, if that is what you're aiming for...
have a system where if he comes out at 8, he get to put a penny in the jar - but if he comes out earlier, then no penny...
hmmm... seems to me it might be rewarding a late-sleeper, though.... or someone who is not early to rise....
hmmm
i think age-appropriate reward system reading material would be helpful....
We pray with the team every day from 7:30-8, Pam, so that's why. I let him come for a while, but he is really hyper and hungry and LOUD so now I make him play in his room until 8.
ReplyDeleteIF Toby is visual, then maybe a star chart would help. Non-visual kids don't give nothing for stars, but visual kids will stand on their heads for stars.-G
ReplyDeletePs, I am still impressed with the YOINKS from last posting. I love that... YOINK!-g
ReplyDeleteI think a penny for each successful task and an additional reward at the end of the day if all six were accomplished.
ReplyDeleteSo the first penny is for if he remembers to stay in his room without being reminded. Then, at the end of the day, when he's disappointed that he doesn't get the end-of-the-successful-day-nickel, or whatever, that disappointment is his reminder to stay in his room the next morning.
Oh, and i agree with whomever said to provide him with some good stay-in-your-room reading or some other beneficial entertainment that will help him to look forward to that alone time in the morning - maybe even make it easier for him to form the habit of spending time with the Lord in the morning as he gets older.
spank him.... j/j ;-)
ReplyDeleteisaac LOVES getting monies in his money jar!
Also if rewards work for him then you can always take a trip to the dollar store or even walmart has pretty good cheap toy isle. drop 20 bucks and fill a TREASURE BOX that he gets to pick a prize from every week depending on the stars collected. OR... look at is as an earthy example of storing up treasures in heaven.
speaking of the teaching of money... i saw a show where the parents paid all the kids allowance. then they would take out there tithe and even FAMILY TAXES. family taxes went into a family jar. every quarter the family would empty the tax jar and it would be used for a family event! (they had lots of kids) I wouldn't use it but i thought it was neat.
ps... i really like that pic of you and richy!
ReplyDelete"show me the new blog entry"
ReplyDeleteGood topic. I was just thinking over the weekend if it's time to start some reward based system with Keith.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mama PC, having them wait all day at this age to get the reward may be hard.