{Marble Reward System}

I decided it was time to go back to the marble system again, for rewards, privileges and punishments. I did this a long time ago, but didn't keep up with it at all. Now that we've moved, hopefully I can restart this and this will be a success. Here's what I'm doing.

Every morning the girls have things they're expected to do: make bed, clean up their room, clean up their bathroom, brush teeth, clean face, etc. For all this, they get one marble. When they come home, they have chores they do (depending on what needs to be done), and for that they get one marble for each chore they do. These chores aren't just little piggly wiggly stuff either... it's "sweep the entire floor in the kitchen, living room, dining room and hall way", or "clean the bathroom" type of chores. Katie made a salad yesterday for one marble, for example. When they want to play on the computer for the Webkinz stuff, they have to pay ME a marble, and one marble equals 20 minutes. When they fight with me, or with each other, or just flat out disobeys, they lose marbles. When they go to bed, again they have things that must be done: clean their room, pick up their bathroom, pick up their clothes, wash their faces, brush their teeth, etc. They get another marble for that as well. And, to top it off, they get an extra marble from me if they were on GREAT behavior all day long, no fighting whatsoever, and was willing to help out wherever & whenever. Some chores they don't get a marble... but the harder jobs get marbles.

So, what do they get when they have a ton of marbles? Not 100% sure yet... Katie is wanting $$ extremely badly, so I need to figure out if 25 marbles = $5, or if it's 30 marbles = $5, etc. Either way, the opportunity to earn 5 marbles a day is very easily & attainable, so I have to make sure I'm not always forking over $$ each week too, so I may raise the amount of marbles. Yesterday the girls wanted to play Webkinz, so they paid me a marble each. Course, I do have a rewards bucket too, w/ little prizes inside (that I pick up at Target's $1 bin), so many marbles will equal a treat in the bucket. They can also choose to get a Sonic's treat after school for so many marbles. Again, I need to figure out my pricing system for them as well, b/c I don't want to make it too hard for them to obtain a reward.

I have to say, in the past 3 days of doing this, this has been working out FANTASTIC! Hopefully I'll keep up with it. :)