Rewards are Great Motivators

This is not only true for adults but children, too. Proverbs 11:18 says, “…but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.” We’ve adopted this principle in our household so that our children can experience immediate, tangible rewards for their efforts to do right on a daily basis.

Over the years, I’ve tried several approaches to rewarding my children for their good works, but there is one approach that seems to be the most fun and effective for us right now. I have chosen to use play money to reward each child for certain accomplishments or acts of teamwork. Here’s how I set up this simple system:

1. I printed out fake/play paper money. (You can download free pre-printed dollar bills here: www.activityvillage.co.uk.
(Side Note- You can also purchase a package of play money at the Dollar Store.)

2. I called these dollar bills “bonus bucks” and introduced them to the kids as a reward system.

3. I keep a plastic tray (that looks like a cash register drawer) at my desk to store all of their earned money. Each slot is labeled with their name at the top.

4. For every accomplishment or outstanding good deed that they do, they receive a certain amount of dollars. For example, if they handle a dispute with a sibling in the proper manner, I will reward them with several bonus bucks.

5. Once they accumulate a certain amount of dollars, they can exchange it for a desirable prize such as an extra special dessert, an item from the Dollar Store, or a special privilege. One of those special privileges may include time viewing an educational video. For example, both of my boys love to learn about animals, so they are very motivated to earn bonus bucks so they can watch a video about a certain animal. The reward of bonus bucks also works well when I am motivating my boys to read lots of books. They get bonus bucks each time they read a book to me. It’s a win-win system for all of us. I watch them improve their reading skills while they earn their dollars.

As a side note, my goal is to let them cash in their earnings by the end of the day, so they can experience their full reward before the following day. This helps them to stay motivated when it comes to earning those dollars.

Another benefit of using this reward system is that my younger ones are practicing math with their bucks. Also, I get to use this same system to penalize them for intentional wrong doings like not having their rooms clean by a certain time in the morning. If this happens, then I subtract bonus bucks from their account.
Overall, it’s proven to be an effective system, and I hope this system gives you some ideas for a reward system that you might want to implement. Of course, if you have very young ones like 2-4 year olds, you may want to use something simpler like a reward chart on the wall. You can find free printable ones at http://www.activityvillage.co.uk that might work well for your family.