I’ve written a post about this reward chart and how it can be helpful for chores around the house. I have revamped the chart to be used for things I want the kids to improve.
For example, Whitney HATES homework. She is supposed to do 15 minutes of reading a night, 4 times a week and play at least 2 math games 4 times a week. I was so tired of getting the weekly notice of her not completing her homework…AGAIN…that I decided to turn homework completion into a reward. I let her decide (and this is very important) what reward she wanted. She is really into L.O.L. Dolls right now so that’s what she picked. It was kinda funny how the conversation went:
“So Whit, what would you want to work towards?”
“Ummmm, well I really like L.O.L. Dolls, but I know they are kinda expensive, so…..”
“NO, NO! That’s perfect!! If that will get you to do your homework!”
“Really??? I thought you’d say ‘no’?”
When I used to teach, I would tell newbie teachers, “Find the kids currency. Like cigarettes in jail….what are their ‘cigarettes’ and that’s what they will work towards.” It works every time!
Anyway, I used the magnets from the chore chart and wrote some of our own GOALS: Complete reading HW; Complete math HW; Be polite.
Being polite was very tricky because Whitney really struggles with tantrums, meltdowns, just lots of up and down behaviors that can turn into saying mean/nasty things, hitting her brothers, hitting/kicking us, etc. So we started that one off in small chunks. Mondays were extremely difficult for her to get to school (she hates school) so our first goal was Saturday-Monday of being polite and she earns an L.O.L Dolls. Then Tuesday – Friday of being polite and she earns a doll. And we had a bigger goal of making it to April vacation of receiving a politeness prize every week and she would earn the L.O.L. Big Surprise. Reading and Math homework were easy: 4 days a week of homework completion earns you a doll.
The wonderful thing I learned about L.O.L Dolls is they basically have 4 levels. Big Sisters, Lil Sisters, Fashion Crush, and Bath Bombs (she doesn’t like the pets but that is another level).
This worked perfectly because if she had one meltdown, she would go down to the Little Sister level, then if something happened again during the week, she would go down to the crush and so on. To make sure she felt like she could earn at least something was extremely important…it gave her hope. For the April vacation price (which was 3 months away at that point), she had to earn at least something every week to be eligible. This gave her hope and she ended up earning it. Having this kind of leveling system works wonderfully! It was the same for homework, but a little stricter. Because she only had to get 4 days of homework done, there were only 2 chances and then she got nothing.
This whole system morphed beautifully into helping the boys work on their goals. They saw Whitney earning prizes and asked what they could do to earn prizes. Wes has meltdowns at daycare, so we did a 5 day goal, just like Whitney’s politeness goal. And Wade never puts his shoes and coat away and always say “I want you to do it” and we end up in a small argument. So that became his goal. Again, I let them pick what they wanted for rewards: Wes likes the L.O.L dolls too and Wade is into Squeezamals and Pikmi Pops . I now have a basket beside the chart so they can see what they may earn.
As a (positive) side note, Whitney’s behavior has been so awesome she has moved onto just a weekly goal, just like Wes….Monday-Friday. Weekends have been awesome for her and the kids all love to talk about their rewards, goals, and they even come up with new ones sometimes. Like if they want a new game for their iPad, then that becomes their weekly goal.
She has also been completing her homework weekly, so we developed a 3 week homework completion goal so she can earn the newest L.O.L Hair Goals. I can’t recommend this Magnetic Reward Chart enough, or ANY chart for that matter.
