If you do a school store/ behavior incentive, can you tell me about it?

[Tree House Academy]

We did school store last year by making 4 rules and each child starting the day with 40 cents (10 cents for each rule). As a rule was broken, they would lose a nickel. It was a pretty good system, but by the end of the school year, I was having some issues. Mainly, the amount of money they could earn was too low and they were only able to get little things like Candy. This year, I want to do more than just give out candy at the end of the week. I would love to hear some new and fresh ideas from the hive so I can re-work my school store/behavior incentive ideas. Thanks everyone!

[m0mmaBuck]

My son is 8 and loves Legos, particularly Star Wars legos. I buy a small box (around 100 pieces) and put them in a glass jar. He can earn up to 3 pieces/day (one for being pleasant during school, ie. doing his work without crying or complaining, one for kindness toward hi sister, and one for doing his chores). When he earns a piece, it goes in a different glass jar. When he has earned the whole set, he gets to build the set in lieu of doing a lesson of his choice.

 

When Legos stop working we will probably go to marbles with the "prize" for moving all of the marbles being an activity of choice (i.e. mini golf, a movie, lunch at a restaurant of his choice, batting cages).

[fhjmom]

We actually bought a "Treasure Box" during Mardel's sale early this month; 6 YO DD really wanted our school to have a treasure box! LOL! Now I am trying to figure out what all to put in it and how to offer rewards. I was going to include tickets for screen time since I am planning on limiting access to TV, computer games, video games, etc. during the school week and maybe some small toys (LEGOs sound like a good idea!). I also thought about putting "Cassie's Coupons" in there as well since my kids love going to the local self-serve frozen yogurt place (Cassie's).

 

As far as earning them, here are the thoughts I had so far (1 prize each):

 

• completing work with out prompting
  
• pleasant attitude, including getting along with siblings (this is a big issue we are working on)
  
• I was also thinking about giving a prize if they used a certain number of new vocaulary words in regular conversation, maybe 5 a week?
  

I am still working out exaclty what this will look like so I would love to hear how others do a reward system!

[BMW]

I have done a few things...

 

one year I made up a chart and used stickers and when they reached a certain number, they got to go out for ice cream... they were very motivated (the chart was for math facts). I know that isn't a store, but I thought I'd mention the variety of things that I have done.

 

Our piano teacher would give points that could be used at her store. She would buy packs of gel pens, erasers, inexpensive "stuff" like notepads.

 

I did a store one year. I would buy little things... one or two at at time... that were good priced. I checked clearance toys. Visiting a dollar store if you have one nearby might help. I had things like stamps and ink pads, the little miniature barbies, flashlights, animal figurines, puzzles, slinky...

 

Sometimes I will still go find things and stock up and have "rainy day" prizes.

[Sue G in PA]

I am starting a system that a read about in a book. Basically, a child's allowance is based on a point system. I know this isn't exactly what you were asking but I thought I would share. Each day, the child has the opportunity to earn 4 points. One each for completing chores (daily and weekly chores), doing schoolwork w/out an attitude, and bedtime routine (b/c that is a disaster around here!). You can choose your own activities for points. Each point is worth a certain amount per age of child. Around here it is 5 cents/point for ages 4-6, 10 cents for ages 7-9, 15 cents for ages 10-12 and 20 cents for ages 13-15. I made up a small, index card sized table that i will have laminated and give to each child to check off the points that they earn each day. At the end of each "pay period" which is 2 weeks here, a parent will sign off on the "allowance card", tally the points and give out the allowance. Not sure how it will work, but it was intriguing to me! Oh, on the back of the allowance card is a list of each child's chores so they have a reminder of what to do each day. Around here, we just don't have the money to do a "treasure box" AND an allowance, kwim? Hope this helps somebody...sorry it was not exactly what you were asking. :)

[mompotter]

Money is more of an incentive now than little toys. Two years ago, I put a dollar in a cup for each child. Money was removed for bad behavior. They were given a warning and if the behavior didn't change I would remove a certain amount. I had it written out so they knew how much they would lose, etc.

 

For whatever reason, it didn't happen last year. May do it again this year. I would let them have the money at the end of the quarter. This way, they had saved up enough to buy something. If they did well I think I added to it (like a bonus).

[sheryl]

And, it works for my 6th grade dd.

 

We are in our 2nd or 3rd year of using this system. Admittedly, the older she gets it has the potential to "lose" the effect...and maybe the longer we use it.

 

My friend gave me this idea and it's GREAT! She even got me started with the little tokens.

 

1 bag of nearly 100 multi colored tokens. Ours are red, blue, yellow, green, orange. You could make paper ones, but in time they will wear out.

 

My dh and I came up with about 20 responsibiliites, goals, etc that we typed and display on refrigerator.

 

For every one that she successfully completes, she earns a token.

 

Why a token? They are plastic and tangible. My dd can see it and touch it.

 

I have 2 containers. To start out with, I keep the tokens in my "ball" jar. At the end of the school day, I give out the tokens....they go from my jar and hand to her hand and jar. I want that association. I don't put them directly into her jar.

 

I lavish as many tokens on her as I can. Examples: come to homeschool room/desk on time, prepared with books ready/pencil sharpened/erasure etc in place, joyful behavior, self-control, re-directed to solve an issue, problem, etc (this is good), good penmanship, respecful and the list goes on. She has to "earn" them by her own effort, but I do give out as many as I can. However, if she doesn't REALLY earn it, I don't give her a token. I NEVER, NEVER, NEVER "take away" or take back tokens. For homeschool purposes she WINS everytime and it's HER CHOICE.

 

At the end of EVERY school day, she counts up the tokens. I have a wicker basket of wendy's frosty coupons, redbox rental, dvd, lunchable, jump romp, books, candy, neat pencils, book marks and the list goes on that are assigned a value system.

 

Smaller items like pencils or 1 individual piece of wrapped candy may be 1 token.

 

Bookmarks - 5

redbox rental - 20

jump rope - 20

 

I keep with multiples of 5. So from 1 token to 5, 10, 15 and so on. The bigger the item and the more desire she has for it, the higher the token price.

 

She buys something most days. Sometimes SHE chooses to use all of her tokens, none to "save" up, buy 1 thing, or multiple items.

 

She gives me the tokens and we start again the next day. If she has tokens left over then she starts with those the next day.

 

SHE has control to comply with OUR expectations. What is good for us and her to grow.

 

Yes, this teaches math, but that was not the goal.

 

She makes choices and we make the final decision. She can choose to reach for those goals on the list and we make the decision to gladly give her the tokens she's earned.

 

It's important for children to feel like they have "some" say. And, the token jars and list are ALWAYS visible...along with the goodie basket. She's got some neat things now from which to choose and I can't remember them all. These items range from an American Girl book in NEW LIKE condition I picked up at a garage sale for 25 cents to about $5. I will go over that on RARE occassion, but then it might cost nearly 30 or more tokens.

 

HTH! Sheryl <><

 

HTH.

[Jeanne in MN]

One year we used a system like Sylvan Learning Center does. I asked each kid what kind of things they'd like in the store. Some things were small/cheap like folders with pictures on the front, cool pencils, gum, markers, etc. Other things were bigger like a Webkinz, a decorative candle holder (for dd of course. :), small trees, etc. for model train setups, etc.

 

Each kid could earn up to 8 tokens/day for good work, effort, attitude, behavior. Each day they would talley up their tokens in a mock checkbook I had for them. They could spend what was in their account as they wished. The bigger items in the store cost something like 20 tokens for each dollar it cost so the Webkinz at $13 was 260 tokens.

 

This was intriguing watching how the kids reacted to having to work so hard and long for a bigger prize. Oneof my boys went into a meltdown the first day when he realized how long it would take to earn the big item he wanted. After that he plugged away at it and was fine until he earned it. His twin went to work, but when he was only a few days away from earning his item, HE had a meltdown! "It's tooooooo hard. I'll never get it! I can't do this." So the waiting and working was a good lesson for them.

[MariannNOVA]

I have a stash of clearance toys, books, colored pencils, glitter, colored paper, stickers, etc - all stuff I pick up for $1 or $2 at Michael's, AC Moore, Target, WalMart and anyplace else I happen to be - if it's the right item (anything but food items) and the right price (almost free), then I buy it. I keep everything hidden away - when I taught in the classroom, everything was kept in a bottom desk drawer. At home, it is in a shopping bag, out of sight.

 

To earn an item (all items are 'worth' the same) one must LOSE stones. In the classroom I did not give out actual stones, we had a chart on the chalkboard and everyone started with seven stones drawn next to their name. If you conducted yourself 'above what was expected' (easy to figure out, look at your classroom rules of behavior) you would have a stone removed/erased. When you had lost all your stones, you would get to select an item. I would display all the items on a table we had in our classroom - everything would look really nice and the child or children who were eligible, would get to select something. There was not a timetable (i.e., it was not set up that we would do this on a particular day). The day you didn't have any stones remaining was the day you selected your item. Also, that was the day you would begin again with seven stones drawn next to your name.

 

My class LOVED this. My kids did it in private school and they LOVED it. We do it in homeschool and the kids LOVE it.

 

My class really started thinking in terms of what they could do that was above and beyond acceptable behavior; i.e., my class took on the job (after discussing it among themselves) of going through the cafeteria when lunch was over, and wiping down all the tables, pushing the chairs in, sweeping up any messes, and generally making the sure the cafeteria tables and floors were clean.

 

This is a great system -- in fact, we started with seven stones and by the end of the school year, we were calling it 21 stones b/c we agreed that we had to increase the number of stones - the impact on positive behavior was that great.

[Tap]

DD11 loves incentives and will work really hard for a small prize. Because of this we have a reading incentive in place. I have a list of 100+ books that we own. She is in 5th grade and the books are 4-6th grade level. She can read any of the books on the list (or add pre approved books herself) to earn points. Her points are calculated by multiplying the grade level times the number of pages. So, a grade 5, 200 page book is worth 1,000 points. She loves Build a Bear so for every 10,000 book points she earns, she gets a $10.00 BAB gift card. (Basically it is $1 for each grade level, 200pg book). She can read a lot of younger books, but they take a long time to gather points. She can get extra points by taking quizzes at Book Adventure (similar to AR but free) or writing a book report or summary. I double any points for a quality history book or biography. Each extra project is worth more points based on effort it requires. She has read over 40 books this year solely for this incentive program :0) on top of our school books.

 

We made a reading chart and got BuildaBear stickers to mark her trail adding a bear sticker for each 1,000 points. Each trail ends in a BAB gift card ( I just glued empty BAB gift cards to the chart in case she decided she didn't want BAB any more, I didn't want to get stuck with pre purchased cards).

[MariannNOVA]

DD11 loves incentives and will work really hard for a small prize. Because of this we have a reading incentive in place. I have a list of 100+ books that we own. She is in 5th grade and the books are 4-6th grade level. She can read any of the books on the list (or add pre approved books herself) to earn points. Her points are calculated by multiplying the grade level times the number of pages. So, a grade 5, 200 page book is worth 1,000 points. She loves Build a Bear so for every 10,000 book points she earns, she gets a $10.00 BAB gift card. (Basically it is $1 for each grade level, 200pg book). She can read a lot of younger books, but they take a long time to gather points. She can get extra points by taking quizzes at Book Adventure (similar to AR but free) or writing a book report or summary. I double any points for a quality history book or biography. Each extra project is worth more points based on effort it requires. She has read over 40 books this year solely for this incentive program :0) on top of our school books.

 

We made a reading chart and got BuildaBear stickers to mark her trail adding a bear sticker for each 1,000 points. Each trail ends in a BAB gift card ( I just glued empty BAB gift cards to the chart in case she decided she didn't want BAB any more, I didn't want to get stuck with pre purchased cards).

 

I love this idea.:)

Edited July 31, 2010 by MariannNOVA

[Pretty in Pink]

I have a 'treasure box' full of little candies and other trinkets, and some nicer items, that I use as an incentive for chores. The kids bank points for chores completed and cash them in each Friday. This works extremely well. Some days I seem to run out of chores for them to do, particularly when they are saving up for a big-ticket item (for example, my oldest just cashed in on a box of Prismacolor pencils).

 

For lessons I do 'popcorn jars'. Each kid has a little jar (a baby food jar or empty yogurt cup works well) and they earn one tsp. of unpopped corn kernels for each lesson completed (in a timely manner, with a cooperative attitude, and a good effort). When the jar is full (which takes about a week with good behavior) they get to stay up late that evening for popcorn and a movie.

 

ETA: I just thought of this one. As another incentive to cooperate with their school work, I have a deal with my kids that if they finish their curriculum on time each year that I'll take them to Books a Million (or Amazon) and let them choose any book in the store. Any book at all (obviously, age appropriate). I buy the book.

Edited July 31, 2010 by Pretty in Pink

[Tree House Academy]

These are great ideas! Keep them coming!!