I earned my paycheck today!

Oh My What A Morning We Had.

(This event occurred in March and it's the last day of school and because of this "program" our mornings are smooth and calm.  Everyone's behavior has improved dramatically - including mine!)

And not like - "oh what darling children I'm raising". More like, "WHO KIDNAPPED MY CHILDREN?"  I won't go into the details but it was bad.  I was pretty good though and did my best to control my rising tide of frustration, especially when Sam was hiding and not following instructions, five minutes before we needed to be headed to school.

So I spent the day earning my title as "Mom".  I prayed and pondered what would be the best way to handle this outbreak - but bigger than that - how do I train my children to be kind, obedient and trustworthy?  I came up with a plan and spent all day putting it into action.  I got some pretty tantalizing incentives ($50 in ones, Hastings gift certificates, big booty jar of candy, a new CD player, Groupons for horseback riding, water park in Phoenix, extreme trampoline center, etc)  Incentives.  Consequences.  There are rewards and consequences for behavior for adults and children and so I needed to go back to that system for awhile. 

The afternoon started with a letter of apology for their behavior this morning: 

 Next - I brought out the jar of money.

The kids have a list of chores that are part of the family responsibility: make your bed, keep your floor clean and put your clothes away.  They don't get paid for that, that's just part of being called a Strickler.

Then there's the job bank.

If you want to earn money to buy something you have to do chores. They benefit is that the payment is immediate, as seen from the money jar above.  Not getting paid immediately for their work performed was the biggest detriment to the success of chores in the past.  So that problem is solved.

Next was the Point bag and Consequence bag:

When I see, hear or am told of kindness, obedience, respect the children are asked to pick out of the Point bag.  They receive a piece of paper with a 1,2,3 on it which they then can trade in for certain rewards.

There's iPad time, sweets, book store gift certificates etc.  It worked incredibly well for the first 3 months but I need to spend some money on the rewards as they're getting pretty slim and it's making a difference I think.

When unwanted behavior happens they pick out the consequence bag.  The consequences are things like writing a letter of apology, sitting on your bed for 10 minutes without playing to think about your behavior, paying mom/dad $5 for "taking their energy" etc.  There is also a "grace" card which gives you forgiveness without consequence.

It's working pretty well and the kids behavior has become much better since its introduction.  The kids made a consequence jar for me to for when I get angry and yell at them - which happens on occasion.  I haven't looked at them yet but I'm hoping one is go to your room and take a nap.