help me come up w/reward sytem using

[luvmyfam444]

Poker chips -when I was in 1st grade (or so) I can remember the teacher sending me home w/a Poker chip for behavior - red, blue,green (can't remember which color meant what)

I found some poker chips on sale @ WM & bought them NOW I've got to figure out what to do with them....

Not sure If I'm gonna have some sort of chart to tally them (get so many + this reward @ end of week) - or treat them like $ that the kids get to cash in @ the end of the week for treats - or use them to be tied specifically to good (blue?) Bad (red) behavior - something of that sort?

BUt my problem is so far dd hasn't been phased by the plan I've tried (chore/behavior chart that they got happy/sad faces for clearing dishes, no ugly talking, etc) and if they got NO sad faces they got icecream @night--getting no icecream didnt' matter to dd (though it's her FAVORITE)

SO I'm trying to figure out some other way of disciplining.....

Any ideas??

 

[dandelion garden]

How many kids, what ages?

 

[tkd lisa]

I tried poker chips for a while. I have 2 kids and had 3 colors of chips.

Each child had "mandatory" chips (those were the things that they owed me if they weren't done). Those were the white chips, and they had the child's initial on them.

Then there were optional chips, and one child was blue, the other was red.

Each child had a butter container with a hole cut in it, and a bowl that had the number of mandatory chips, and a pile of regular chips in it. Whenever they did the chore, they put the chip in their butter container. At the end of the week, I'd open the butter container, subtract any mandatory chips not done (my kids were really bad about not making their beds then, which was mandatory), and give them a quarter per chip.

Hope this helps. It did work, but as my kids got older, we just moved to a job chart, since there were fewer moving parts, and they didn't need the physical re-assurance of putting the chips in the tub.

 

[luvmyfam444]

AHHHH...thanks this seems like it might work - so yours was tied to chores & $$$...did you also use behavior (extra chips for no whining - taken away for whining??)

 

[missypie]

Put 10 chips in a cup for each child. Each chip represents a dime. Every time the kid does something naughty, you remove a chip. At the end of the week, they get a dime for every chip in the cup.

I did this with uncooked macaroni noodles when my kids were little.

With poker chips, it could be even more refined...a different amount for each color, then you could take away a low value chip for a small offense, and a high value chip for a larger offense.

 

[Daisy Duck 5]

I was just thinking of this idea for a reward system I have never tried it out but I think it would work. I am taking child and youth in university so I am just applying what I learned yesterday.
Make a chart with the positive things you want your child to complete for the week. Some examples may be set the kitchen table, no fighting all day with a sibling. Make the chores the same all week so they will do it without being asked. At the end of the day if they complete their task without being reminded they get a poker chip. Try to have two or three things you work on each week.
There is no way a poker chip can be removed. Do not pay attention to a negative behaviour unless someone is getting hurt. If someone is getting hurt have a timeout area where they can go to cool down. Our prof said the time out area should not be in a corner but more so just a place to cool down such as at the table with a puzzle.
If the child has a certain amount of poker chips at the end of the week they can draw out a slip of paper from a box. On the paper will be a random reward. Some examples are stay up late, new pencils, a pack of gum, rent a movie, watch tv all morning etc. Make sure there are reward in the box that you know your children would want. Some of the rewards should be better than other. I think the idea of randomness would work well that is how people get so addicted to gambling because the winning is random.

 

[Glynis]

One thing we've found works for us is letting the kids help in deciding the rewards/consequences. If they have input, it's a lot harder for them to fight you on it. For example, DD didn't make her bed all week long last week. The consequence was to give up her weekly trip to the library (something she looks forward to all week). Since she came up with the consequence, there was no whining or wheedling.

 

[rt2dz]

For DS5 we have a jar. Every time he does something good he gets a marble in his jar (cleans up without my asking). If it is extra good, I may give him 2 marbles (gives up the last cookie to his little brother without being asked). When he does something wrong (talks back), I subtract a marble. When his jar is full, he gets to pick a special treat.

He's never asked for anything outrageous, just usually a trip to the zoo, a playdate with mom or dad and no siblings, but I suppose limits might become necessary. As he gets older, the jar will get bigger. It has never come up, but we would use something else for negatives that would be withdrawn instead of getting marbles if there is more bad behavior than good. Does that make sense?