Sweet Rewards

Thanks Elizabeth for letting me bother you with my BIG time nesting! I will have house pictures for you soon!

First, show off my great kids. And yes for those of you who can count, Elizabeth said I am almost done cooking my sixth baby and there are only four kids pictured. Number three baby, died of SIDS at two weeks old and so is not in this picture. Just so you won't think Elizabeth is doing any false advertising. :)


They clean the house for me. Okay, not really, but they do their part. Want to know the secret? Rewards.

I know I personally will move mountains for a little recognition. Apparentley it works for kids too. At our house we use what we call "the marble jars." They are just little mason jars with each kids initial on them (you could use whatever you had...this is what I had and it keeps it fair between the three big kids).


We review how they did each evening as part of the bedtime ritual and they decide how many marbles they should get that day. They can get one marble for each chore they do and one for good behavior at church on Sunday. They lose marbles for not doing a chore well or quickly (my oldest routinely loses his load the dishwasher marble for playing in the dirty water instead of loading the dishes. Eww!). They "self manage" and decide if they deserve a marble for any given chore. We rarely have to intervene, because they know when they haven't done a good job.

Here is a sample of yesterday's chores:

taking out the trash

The oldest, who is eight, loaded the dishwasher, took out the trash, put his own laundry away, watered the potted plants and picked up everything off the floor in the family room.

cleaning his room

Number two, who is six, emptied the dishwasher, put his laundry away, put the one year old's laundry away and folded all the towels for the kid's bathroom. He also started cleaning his room as an extra chore (to earn another marble) but gave up, so decided he didn't get one for that.

Playing in her half painted room because she already finished chores!

The three year old brought all the dirty laundry from the hampers to the laundry room, put her own laundry away, and fold the towels for Mommy and Daddy's bathroom.

When they fill their jar they get a date with Mommy or Daddy to go do something fun without the other kids. That is a BIG deal at our house.

This system works well for our family. Maybe it will work for yours! Check out the Works for Me Wednesday party at We Are THAT Family. Thanks for stopping by!