January 13, 2009

Reward/Punishment Boxes

I've implemented something new in our household. We have two pretty little gift boxes sitting on top of the fridge. One is a reward box. The other is a punishment box. Inside the corresponding boxes are slips of paper with either punishments or rewards written on them. The boys and I sat down one evening and came up with them together. Some they thought up were rather creative.

Be the boss of the house for 30 minutes. (reward)

Eat a spoonful of horseradish (punishment)

Dust the entire house (punishment for anyone but Orin - he likes to dust)

Extra $1.00 for good behavior

Scrub the toilets

Invite over a friend

There were many others. Some rewards/punishments are greater/more drastic than others, but they never know what they'll pull out of the box. It's great for me - I just say "you'll get the box" when they're acting up and I don't have to think up a punishment on the spot. Seeing the reward box on top of the fridge gives them incentive for good behavior.

1 comments:

Pauly Z said...

Min, you could write a book. I don't know anyone that does a better job raising boys than you guys do. I'm sure we'll be asking for advice in the future...