Charts Can Be Rewarding!

Like many parents, we often struggle with dealing with childhood behavior and rewarding excellent behavior. For the past 7 years we've tried many different angles, but none of them have worked nearly as well as a simple reward chart. Of course, we've tried several reward charts with Harper, but we decided to go back to the simple one we did 7 years ago.

This reward chart is quite simple; the chart is tracked like a calendar, covering the entire month of November. Each day, the kids (all four of them as it's only fair to include them all) gain the opportunity to be rewarded for their excellent behavior that day. If they break one of the rules listed on the chart (we only have 7 rules in this house), we put an "X" for their name on that day. Each of them are given three opportunities to earn that reward (three strikes and you're out!). If they make it the entire day without getting three "Xs" on the reward chart, they get a sticker. Each sticker is equivalent to $0.50 which they can cash in at some point to get their reward (whatever they choose).

Although I can't really say this method has significantly changed Harper's behavior (because she gets into the 5-year old funk sometimes), it seems to have a great impact on Riannah and Nolan! We've tried a few ways here and there in terms of addressing their behavior, but they were more reactive than proactive (I consider this reward chart to be quite proactive as it establishes a daily goal of good behavior to gain the reward rather than penalizing them for poor behavior). For them, this could be considered as a way of tracking their ability to earn an allowance and ensure they avoid troublesome behavior when it comes to interacting with their younger siblings (or avoiding negative interaction). It definitely fits the bill of reward chart instead of trying to enforce rules and penalizing those that are broken.

When it comes down to it, I can definitely say that we will be doing this again next month, and probably from now on. This seems to work so well and I'm extremely happy with the results. Harper will take a bit more of dealing with on the side, but that's because she's a 5-year old, and not because she needs special treatment. For those who don't have Kindergarten-age children yet, you'll find out what I mean once 4-4 1/2 rolls around. ;)

Yep; reward charts are rewarding from a parenting aspect as much as they are from the children's aspect. I love it, and it really gives me a visual way of seeing our children's good days, bad days, and progressively improved behavior. While it may seem like such a trivial thing to worry about, it seems to make everyone happy and brings down the stress level throughout the house. Which is always a plus as poor behavior can cause undue stress on everyone; even siblings.