Thursday, May 3, 2012

Not Renovation Related: Rockstar Jar

Have I mentioned how we have 5 children 10 and under running around this house?
(Plus a dog, but that's another can of worms entirely).


No?

2 adults working full time, 5 school aged children, one dog, one house in a constant state of renovations... I'm sure you get an idea of the chaos that is relatively normal here.

Last weekend we sat down to have a "family meeting", our first as a group I believe. It went very well. We talked about all kinds of rules (like not whining), expectations (like flushing the toilet) and what it all really came down to (showing respect). We also had a lot of great ideas come out of the meeting, my favorite was from my older twin daughter, Katy.

The RockStar Jar. 

Katy says they do this in their JK class. When one of the children does something awesome, is extra helpful, shows respect, etc. they get to put a rock in the "RockStar Jar". When it's full they party (like RockStars I assume. :)

Since we have 5 kids, and the classroom has 30, I decided we would make it a bit different- our jar has lines at various heights (it came like that from the dollar store), so I said when we reach the bottom one, we all go for a dollar store trip, the next level we will go for ice cream or something, the next will be something a bit better (lazer tag for the boys, indoor playground for the twins) and so on. When the whole jar is full we are going to book a trip to Canada's Wonderland and then empty the jar and start all over again. These are all things I would have liked to do with the kids anyways, it's really giving them an opportunity to be invested in earning these experiences.

The RockStar jar lives in our kitchen and the kids are very excited about it. I am already noticing much better behavior and it's working well as a communal incentive.

I'd love to hear your feedback or questions in the comments.

-Heather

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