For example, Magpie is my liar and my quitter. I’m not trying to disparage my child, but she is. I have a natural tendency not to trust what she tells me and she almost never finishes a job that I give her to do, so I’m really wanting to focus on that with her specifically.
Chipette is my whiner and my bad attitude kid. She can whine and complain with the best of them when asked to do something that is not on her agenda for the day. This is what I’m trying to work on with her.
For both of them, I want to work on not fighting with each other!
To add a little extra incentive besides our usual method of reward and punishment, I found this idea via a friend on Facebook’s Pinterest page: money jars.
Each girl has her name on a glass jar (which are kept on the top shelf of the bookshelf!).
I get a roll of quarters each week and put $5 worth in each jar.
The third jar is my jar.
When Magpie lies or quits working besides the consequences on our family rules chart, I also take a quarter out of her jar and put it in my jar. When Chipette whines or complains, I get a quarter for each time. When they fight with each other, I get a quarter from both of their jars. See…I already got some money in my jar!
At the end of the week, they can spend whatever is left in their jar when we go shopping on Friday. Or they can save it. Or whatever. But it is their money to do with as they like.
They live for this and it has made it easier on me to focus on specific character weaknesses. Plus as an added benefit, whenever they ask for something I say, “Do you have enough jar money to buy it?”
Whatever is in my jar I just put back into the $10 for the next week. So if I have $2.50 in my jar, then I only have to get $7.50 in quarters.
Once they start consistently keeping all of their quarters, then we will work on something else. Goodness knows that with kids if it’s not one thing, it’s another!
Developing strong character and good kids one quarter at a time in the tree house,
Chelli
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