Mimicking the School Reward System

Part two of Rewarding good behavior… a series on Mimicking the school reward system for good behavior…..

I informed my children on the way to school that the tickets earned at home would work a little differently than the tickets earned at school.  The first thing they wanted to go over in great detail was the prizes.  The rewards they thought of were a little loftier that the pencil they came home from school with.  No surprise there.  I told them there would be short term rewards and those which they would have to save up for.  Added bonus of math lesson and budgeting experience, again, another good thing for me.

Knowing my priority of keeping positive outlooks, I informed my kids that tickets were going to be easy to earn in the beginning since they were not new to our house and the rules and behavior I expect from them.  In school it was going to take time to learn the rules and expectations.  I told them that while they were learning how to earn the tickets in school they did not need to be frustrated since the tickets at home would come a little easier.  Once they learned the rules and were earning more tickets in school we would add some more challenging ways to earn tickets at home.  Endless mom opportunities with that one.

The one thing that I wanted to be clear about this system, to my son’s delight, was that tickets would only be used as a reward.  My son asked if his tickets could be taken away.  I said not at home, I am not sure how his classroom rewards systems works, but in our house the tickets were only used a positive reinforcement.  Once he earned a ticket it was his.  It would be up to him the number of tickets he wanted to earn towards his reward.

I wanted to share this since I think it will work very nicely at home.  Find out what the reward system is in your kids’ classroom.  I cannot imagine any teacher would not mind a quick question at the open house as to the details of their system.  I think it is important to let the teacher know she or he will be backed up at home and the reward system is a great way to break the ice.  The rewards can range from a dollar store find to a larger toy or game which your kids would work hard for.  We are all excited and I think it is the first of many ways I can reinforce what is going on in the classroom.  Since the rule at our house is if you are in trouble in school, you are in more trouble at home.

So before I sent them off to school on Friday, knowing that I had to keep a positive attitude intact I told my kids we were going to earn tickets at home too.  My son, who was still half asleep in his bed peeked through one eye and asked me for details.  My first example was that IF he was able to get out of bed without complaining, get dressed and ready for school with a good outlook he could earn one ticket.  Next thing I knew my son was ready to go with time to spare.  Enough time that I was able to offer another ticket earning opportunity and out went the garbage cans to the curb before I could even finish what I was doing to walk out to help him.  I like this ticket game.