Rewards & Consequences

I've been working on a new reward & consequence system for the children. I'm sure you moms out there know that no one system lasts forever. It was time for a change again. The children need something new & I need something simple and quick yet effective.

Using ideas from various sources I combined them & added some of my own. I typed up a list of rewards & printed them out.
Next I cut them into strips.

I folded them all up & separated them into 2 jars. One is for my boys & the other is for my two oldest girls. My youngest is not old enough yet to need a system. The reason I divided them was because some of the rewards were a better fit for my boys while others were a better fit for my girls. This is due not only to gender but for interests and even more so because of their ages. I decorated each jar & then filled them up with the rewards paper slips.

The idea is that I will be on the look-out each day to "catch them" being good, obeying, showing kindness, and doing their work. If they are "caught" then they will be given permission to draw a reward from their jar. Some rewards are points towards a big reward while others are instant. I plan to make a chart or pockets to keep track of what they have earned. (The girl's jar is a little "girlie" but they were the only stickers I had. I plan to get more age appropriate ones soon. In the meantime my girls said they didn't mind. Good sports!)

A friend of mine spoke of making "Consequence Cards". In the past we have used posters from Doorposts. This is the same type of idea. I made up my own consequences & again typed them up. After cutting them out into strips I taped them onto index cards. I outlined each card in either yellow or red. Yellow is for the minor discipline. Red is for more serious discipline or consequences. The craft sticks have extra chores glued on them. This way I can either choose a yellow card, red card or extra chore stick depending on what I think fits the offense. I like that I don't have to spend time thinking up new consequences & they will be at my finger tips. At the same time I still have a variety of choices. I made copies of several consequences as I have 5 children, 4 of whom will be using this system.

I hope to start using our new system tomorrow. If you'd like I'll update in a week or so to let you know how it is going.