I recently read a book by The Duggars, those folks on "20 and Counting". In it, they mentioned giving the children a penny every time they said "yes, ma'am" or something like that. Having worked previously with people with developmental disabilities, i've executed plans sort of like this before, attempting to build a positive behavior or negate a negative one. I've been seriously considering a simple program to reward all of my kids with money for doing chores, plus extra credit for taking initiative, being responsible, etc (or as my pap would have said, not "half-assing" it). I'm also considering using this with my five year old and two year old when working on school-related stuff, like sounding out letters/words, etc. Does anyone else do this, or have you done it....what experiences have you had with it? Heck, even if you haven't, if you have an opinion, let me hear it.
I sort of have something like that going with my kid, I wrote some software that queries him on things like what is 2+3, and what word goes with a particular picture, etc. For each thing he completes he gets a certain number of points, then when he gets enough points he can watch 5 minutes of video, like Sid the Science kid or something like that. I've noticed that that particular points system works really well with him to get his schoolwork done. One concern I've always had about giving kids money for things is that I worry when kids associate getting money with doing work. I'm a pretty firm believer that doing work is part of being human and to be a healthy human you really need to do work, the money side of it is just something we created to figure out how to distribute food and shelter, etc. In other words, if your kids learn to enjoy work then in truth they won't work a day in their lives, and what a great future to setup for them. That said, it probably doesn't really hurt as plenty of parents have setup a monetary reward system, my parents didn't and plenty of my friends parents did, and we all seemed to turn out ok
I have used a system in my classroom (we school Other People's Kids), particularly in the second half of the year, where if they get all-but-one (hopefully, all, but I'll settle for all-but-one) of their assignments for the day done within the day, they get a sticker for the day on a chart. Every day that they get a sticker on the chart that week, their name goes into a drawing. At the end of the week (or first thing the next week), we have a drawing for prizes. Since mostly we have older-than-primary-age kids, their prizes might be something like Food (50c for a snack at the drugstore across the street), 15 minutes computer time, 15 minutes free time (non-computer), or Mercy (can be used to eliminate one written homework assignment, but not studying for a test). Now that I have some littler kids, I've gotten a box full of small toys from Oriental Trading that will be prizes too. Some kids have been satisfied to get their name into the drawing only once a week - some easily realize the advantage to getting your name in five times. Sometimes I have to change the criteria -- such as having one less prize than kids in the drawing. So if there are five kids in the drawing, we'll have only four prizes that week - kind of like musical chairs, one less than the number of players. But for the littler kids, I'll need to do that differently. When we were hs'ing our ds, there were times when I couldn't even PAY him real money to do his lessons...
My Jeannie gets a carnival ride ticket for every hour she does school work without grousing. Each ticket is .25. I add these up every Friday, and pay her. I give her extra tickets for things like very neat work or extra effort I see her put out.
We first started homeschooling when my oldest was going into second grade. One of his favorite things from school was the treasure chest on Fridays, so I got some play money at Dollar Tree and would pay him for how he did his work, how he behaved, how well he did his chores (in our home there is no difference between "school" and "home", it's all just "life"). I bought a whole mess of things from the dollar stores and cheap things from Walmart, put them into a big box with a list written of what was in there and how much "Mommy Money" each thing cost. Fridays after all chores and school stuff was done he was allowed to buy from the box with his money. Oh, I would also include certificates for things in the box.. TV time, his choice on Netflix, cash, trips to the park, etc.
I have tried numerous types of reward systems and so far nothing has worked for us. I have tried a picking basket (similar to crazymama's treasure chest), nickels for each worksheet, quarters for chores etc. There was a time that we rewarded them with 5 minutes of screen time (they pick tv, computer or game) for every few worksheets. It worked for awhile and then well, it stopped working. I would love to find something that works for us!!
I'm not sure there's a method that works and continues to work long-term.... I find I have to keep changing around, too, just to keep things interesting.
