Rewarding Good Behaviour

For those parents who chose to go down the path of the Reward Chart....

Your child does it! They complete all the necessary requirements to fill their chart and earn their reward, now what?

For young children... the award needs to be very tangible and fairly instant (and in my opinion, cheap!) so here are some ideas...

- a lucky dip bag (of $2 shop items)
- a new item of clothing (especially if needed, I know my kids love getting clothes even from 2yo)
- a lolly
- a book

For five year olds and even up to 8 year olds (reward charts can still be quite successful up to this age) it is time to move away from the instant tangible reward and make it more of a special reward

- a date out with mum or dad
- choose the menu for dinner
- time doing a special craft, activity, etc around the home

One mum who purchased a Little Billies Reward Chart shared with me how she reward her child, and I have to say I now use that method with my nearly 4yo.

She buys a toy that is say $15 (for the sake of the example) and then she ties ribbons around the toy and puts it somewhere, where her boy can see it. She ties 1 ribbon per $5 value. So this particular toy has three ribbons on it. Then as her child fills the chart, he gets to cut a ribbon. On the third filling of the chart they get to cut the ribbon and get that much anticipated toy!

How clever is that! It stops the whole accumulation of all those little cheap toys and the child actually gets something that they want. So part of the 5+ year olds 'reward' in achieving a full chart could be a trip to the shop to tie up the next toy!

I think too, it is important not to keep increasing the prize. Just a reward sticker on a chart should be enough to reward a child, it does not need to be accompanied by something else each time. A Reward at the end is ample enough.