Our Summer Good Behavior Incentive Program

The last couple of summers, Joshua and I had a good-behavior program for the children. It was a "Star Chart" in the kitchen on our dry erase board, and the kids had to earn a certain amount of stars each week for good behavior here at home. This was to help us keep the fighting, bickering, and disobedience to a minimum, and it really did help. They would each start out with zero stars at the beginning of the week, and depending on good or bad behavior, we would add or subtract stars as we went about the week. By the end of the week, usually during FHE, we would see if they got enough stars to earn individual prizes. It really worked well the last few years, but we thought if we tried it again this summer, it would probably be stale and unmotivating. So I've been brainstorming the last few months to come up with a new program.I call it the "Don't Move-Your-Name List". Here is how it works.

Instead of working on it weekly like we did last year, it is a daily incentive program. The kids each have their name on the fridge next to my "list". At the start of each day, their name begins next to my smiley face at the top of the list. Throughout the day, if they get in trouble or make a bad choice, I tell them to go move their name. They must move it down one step on my list. They also have to do what it tells them to do, such as 10 minutes in time-out -- See picture with the list below.

At the end of the day, if their name is still on my smiley face, they get to choose a reward, or "token" as we call it. I have 4 different tokens that can be redeemed for whenever they want to use it. We stick the token next to their picture on the fridge so we can remember which ones they've already chosen. They are: 1- Invite a friend over; 2- Stay up one hour later; 3- Free pass on a weekly chore; 4- One extra hour of video games (Normally, I only let them play one hour each day). The video game token has been the most popular, but all the different tokens have been chosen this week (this is our first week with the program). Spencer said they are equally good and he has a hard time choosing which one he wants most. It has been such a great week with this new program. Everyone has been very well behaved -- I love it!!

(Click on picture to enlarge)