Rewards Programs that Work

Now that’s rewarding: an incentive program that gets your kids to help.

By Amy Clark

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Last year we implemented a new rewards program in our house. No, I am not referring to a credit card or shopping program. This rewards program was put in place for our children to help teach them that helping out in the family is not only fun, but also rewarding. Our simple rewards system consists of a roll of raffle tickets and two handmade charts for chores and rewards.

We really wanted our children to pitch in around the house and a ticket system was a very inexpensive way to make that happen. I sat down with our son and created a list of all the chores that we needed him to complete. We then put together a chart of all of the things he wanted to work towards.

Our son’s chart was a picture chart, since he was not reading just yet. I pulled all of the images from my computer’s clip art collection and had him choose pictures that would help him remember what he needed to do. Together we cut them out, mounted them on cardboard, and wrote number values in the corners of each picture for the amount of tickets he would earn for completing each task.

For our chart, we had one poster of things he had to do to earn tickets and two posters of amazing rewards. We have them hanging on the refrigerator where it is visible for the entire family and rewarding to see how we work towards our goals.

Here is an example of how our chart worked:

Earn Tickets:

Go to school nicely - 3 tickets
Make my bed - 1 ticket
Put breakfast dishes in the sink - 1 ticket
Pick up toys before bed - 3 tickets
Go to bed nicely - 1 ticket
Feed the cat - 1 ticket
Help mommy with laundry - 3 tickets

Rewards:

Get to read an extra book - 5 tickets
Go to the library - 10 tickets
Pick what to eat for dinner - 10 tickets
Get a movie - 10 tickets
Play a game with mom or dad - 10 tickets
Rent a video game - 20 tickets
1 Hour of computer time - 25 tickets
Pick and make a snack with mommy - 25 tickets
Go to the dollar movie - 30 tickets
Stay up one hour late - 35 tickets
Get ice cream - 35 tickets
Go bowling - 100 tickets

You can see that the majority of the rewards are inexpensive and there are big rewards that we can work towards together that are more expensive. Surprisingly, I have found that the material rewards are not usually what my son has been working towards and instead he uses his tickets to spend time with our family.

The beauty of this system is that it can grow with our children as they get older. The tickets, for example, can later be used for setting curfew times, music downloads or cash value.

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recent comments

9/6/2010 ,

L H.

I get the point, but having to BUY mom & dad's time or a trip to the library?

5/5/2009 ,

Jaimie H.

I have tried...a dry erase board...poker chips, hundreds of stickers...squares of paper...among other things. My childrens interest went quickly and fizzled out even quicker. So, with an 11 year old with ADHD...and a 5 year old who just wants to have fun...I will try anything!! Thanks!

1/29/2009 ,

DeEda W.

I think this is a great idea! We too have a list that's on our hallway closet door, my children call it the responsibility list, they didn't chores. They have to make bed, put dirty cloths away, feed animal, dishes, bathroom, homework done, go to school for my youngest, ect.., extra place that me or my husband can decide stickers too! Appropriate to age! We did the reward thing. For us it didn't work to well. We now are showing them, this is living in a house and how it works! For good behavior they get to watch T.V., movie, play video game, and or rent one, and have computer time. Half hour at a time for each one. Except for a movie which can be watched on the weekend. They also get to go to a friends house or have them come over. They also get Pizza night once a month if all goes well. With out the rewards being shown and them taking on the chores and having stickers being placed, I notice for my 3 kids that this method works for us! They are 11, 8, 6 years