Skip to main content

Reward Your Child

Ever caught your child being good?
What do you do when you see them behaving properly? Do you tell them how proud you are of them? Do you hug them? Do you reward them?
Although kids usually know and understand how they are supposed to act and behave, they some need some motivation, or incentive, to ‘keep up the good work’.
I have a way to reward my children when I witness them being good, I give them chips. No not a bag of Lays Potato Chips. A colorful chip that you’d use in a card game. The chips are put into a cup that is theirs and they stock pile them for rewards.
If I see my kids help a sibling with homework I give them a chip. If they offer to help cook dinner I give them a chip. If I see them handle a difficult situation with patience and respect, they get 3 chips.
Sometimes they can earn bonus chips which are worth 10 and are marked by a small smiley sticker. These are generally for random acts of kindness or doing extra chores without being asked.
For example my daughter has a bad (and messy) habit of leaving globs of toothpaste in the sink. So, because she shares a bathroom with her sister and brother I give her a bonus chip if she remembers to clean out the sink, since she is showing kindness and respect for others.
The list of things they can use chips for is on our kitchen wipe off board. It’s a chart of things they love to do in their leisure time and they cost chips to get. For example they may want computer time. Well, a half hour of that would cost them 3 chips. Some T.V.?  Four chips for 1 hr of that.     
Kids always want. They want to play, they want a treat, and they want to have fun. But they don’t always want to make the right choices and behave. They’re kids, it’s to be expected.
The Chip Reward System is so simple, but the kids love it and it gets great results!
Try the chip system with your children and tell me how you did it and if it helped. Like-wise, leave me your comments on what you do to keep your kids motivated to behave.

Truly,
Amber



Popular posts from this blog

Back to School Anxiety: Bullying

Download “School Boy Being Stressed” by David Castillo Dominici via freedigitalphotos.net I recently wrote about how to help your child if they’re struggling with going back to school because they were bullied. My biggest most important tip was to listen, because I honestly could not write a ‘How-to-make-them-not-afraid’ column. Frankly I thought that was absurd. Fear is sometimes real. Anxiety is sometimes truly there, and for a good reason. Our job as parents isn’t to try to make it go away, it’s to try to find out the true source of those worrisome feelings. If you’d like to read more, click here. And if you’re child is struggling to find excitement about the new school year, don’t deny it, just accept it and move forward gently. Here’s some more on bullying: Family Matters Links: A Touching Story/Song Bullying: A thing of the past A Peace Poem By My Teenage Daughter A Deeper Insight into My Thoughts on People Who Bring Harm to Others Other Links: Stop Bul

6 Ways to Support Teens and Mental Health (Column Related)

  Enjoying a trip to see family and exploring the outdoors. May was Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s over now, but it shouldn’t be. I’m not a medical professional or anything even close, but I am convinced that every person on the planet (no matter age, economic status, profession, race, or gender) is vulnerable to events that can alter their state of mind. If you’re not sure about this, just research the increase in the amount of people seeking psychological help due to the pandemic, then try getting an appointment with a therapist or counselor that doesn’t require weeks or months on a wait list. There are so many things damaging our mental health that we don’t even realize. Add underlying issues not yet detected and undiagnosed…it’s a bad situation made worse, and the need for support more urgent. Many teens are struggling with mental health issues right now and many of us don’t even know it. How could we? Not too many teens feel comfortable talking to adults about ‘their stuff’ a

Green Punch Buggy....!!!!

Green Punch Buggy...No Punch Back! As I was writing this blog post, my son came to me showing off his Lego creation. And don't you know I got hit at least five times since on my computer screen was displaying at least five different punch buggies, of five different colors thanks to Google Images. (Bad timing I'm thinking...) How can we possibly have world peace with these silly cars in the world!? ;) Don't the owners of these cute-but-obnoxious-cars understand that driving these things around town promotes violence!? ;) Anyhow.... The original purpose of this blog was to ask parents everywhere this question: Do you find yourself saying 'PUNCH BUGGY *BLANK-COLOR*! '  to yourself, even when the kids are not in the car??? I do! Isn't it funny how those games we used to play as a child are still around? I bet our parents say the same thing.... HAPPY FRIIIIIIDAAAAYYYY! P.S. I got hit at least ten more times, since as my son stood beside