Hello all! My kids love video games and playing with the neighbor's kids. I know i can use this to my advantage when we start school. Anyone have tips or experience in earning time to do an activity?
We have done this. Especially when the students were younger. Now we do the negative version. YOu get so much screen time and loose it if you don't do school and chores.
I allow 2 hours of video games (they play mostly minecraft.. so it's sneakily educational in my opinion). I take how many things need done a day and each one earns them a portion of that time.. so say they have 12 things to do... errrr say I find 12 things to do between subjects and chores, each one completed satisfactorily (including attitude and effort) earns them 10 minutes. If I have to fight then they lose time.. but they don't see it that way they only see the earn, and don't hate me for taking away. We dont' have friends here to play with (country life ) and outside play is completely free here. There is a lot of learning and exploring going on out there. I do try to get school and chores out of them before they go out, but have been known to say go play for a while in the middle of it all (usually when I see they need to blow off some energy or I need to blow off some steam when they are fighting me on things).
My boys earn video game time based how their tests that week, and how well they behaved in school that week. We have a max time though of 3 hrs and can only be used Fri after school and Saturday. And no rolling over unplayed time. It's a great incentive for my 13 and 14 yr olds.
