It’s nice when ideas work out. At the start of the summer I shared how the crazy schedules were taking their toll. I knew I had to come up with a few things to help me save my sanity. I needed to come up with things to address filling their time as well as behavior and helping out around the house. As most of what we’ve implemented has been working I thought I’d share.

Behavior, Helping & Learning

It’s all about incentives. The right motivation can move mountains. The trick is to actually follow through.

1) The Marble Jar

• This isn’t a new concept but it works. I’ve done it using candy to fill a jar, etc. What I really like about this behavior reward system is the way you can add and take away earnings without set measurements because behavior is anything but perfectly measured! When they’re good they get marbles added, when they’re not they get them taken away. As the jar gets filled fun options become available. The trick to making this work for me is a reward system that’s attainable, various and real. The first goal is to fill the jar so they can earn a trip to Chuck E Cheese or other places they really love to go. But what makes it works is having other options along the way. Spending $18 on a toy chest like this from Oriental Trading can buy mountains of attainable motivation. It also gives them the choice to spend some of their marbles on immediate toys and goodies or saving up for something bigger. They love seeing the marbles build and they feel so big when I let them put some in. It’s also wonderful because I don’t have to do more than ask them how many marbles they want to lose when they start throwing a fit or talking back.

2) Allowance & Learning

• This one works in a couple different ways. Each child can earn a set amount of money in two areas Monday through Friday. The two areas are household chores/cleaning and learning/school. If they complete assigned tasks in both they can earn their money. If they complain they lose their ability to earn marbles with the jobs. At the end of the week we tally up their earnings and pay them. My 9 year old can earn two dollars a day and my 4 year old can earn two dimes a day. We’re yet to earn a full $10 or $2 a week but they’re getting closer! They are learning that good things happen when they work for them and that money isn’t free. The lessons continue with how to manage money. Yesterday we made money boxes for them to start storing their earned money. They had a blast making them with mom’s help. Each box has three compartments one for tithing, one for spending and one for savings.
  I look forward to having them expound on this by taking their earnings to the bank each week to deposit in savings and make bigger bills/change for their stored earnings.

Entertainment

1) Summer Movies

• We signed up for this at the end of the school year. I paid $7 per person for 10 movies. We picked the week day we wanted and they sent home the tickets. The movies are all some they’ve seen but going to the theatre is always a treat. It’s not something I’d like to do more than once a week because honestly, it’s just a dang lot of noisy kids there with moms. But once a week is great. I don’t know how other theatres may work summer programs, but they’re worth checking out.

2) Forts

• This was a happy accident the kids discovered early in the summer during morning playtime together. I’ve helped them reassemble the roof a few times. It’s amazing how much time they can spend inside. And it makes mom feel good because they’re learning how to fill their time with creative play together.

3) Swimming

• The ultimate fall back and something we do almost every day - mostly because it’s the one way mom makes sure she gets some exercise in! It’s also the only thing you can do outside when it’s over 110 degrees!

Oh and I almost forgot!! Something I did on a whim that really worked out well was a new way to do scrapbooking for my daughter. She’s not quite at the point of handling photos by herself yet, although she’s getting much better at cutting around them. So a few days ago I was visiting my Facebook site and saw that her birthmom had updated some family photos. She was looking over my shoulder at them and asked if I could print some out for her to make some pages with. So I copied them over to a document and reduced the sizes to fit 2-3 on a page and printed them. She had so much fun putting them on pages and I didn’t worry about photos getting destroyed with scissors run amuck. With so many pictures digital now this is going to be a great way to help her build her confidence on scrapbooking! Here’s her results:

Now lest you think things at my house are smooth sailing only….the TV is still on twice as much as I’d like as are the video games or gameboys. There is still managing of sibling rivalry to referee and I still have more days when I go to bed wishing I’d gotten more done. But the good news is that a few successes can go a long way! So what’s working at your house?

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