Want a Positive Way to Encourage Good Behavior in your Children? Try This!
Being a parent is the greatest joy of my life, but parenting is also hard sometimes. One thing I struggle with is deciding just the right way to encourage good behavior in my three children. I want them to grow up to be good people. I want them to be kind and responsible and reflective. If you’re a parent (or grandparent, aunt, uncle, or guardian of any kind), you probably know just what I mean. I’m not an expert or a child psychologist, but there are just a few things I’ve done with my own children that have worked well in our home. One of them is using weekly reward charts to encourage good behaviors.
What is a reward chart?
A reward chart helps you keep track of the good behaviors your child demonstrates. Every day, you mark the ways your child has been successful that day. You can mark this with stickers the way we do or you can use a stamp or just check it off with a pen or pencil. We use a weekly version, but you can also use one that is monthly if that’s easier. At the end of the week, we make every sticker worth a quarter, and that’s how our kids earn allowance.
Benefits
I first want to say that I know parents are busy. I know parenting is hard. That’s why I love this because this is so easy. Just find a chart you like that fits where your kids are right now. I’ve linked a weekly chart below and a really general chart we used when our kids were toddlers. But you can find tons of options online as well. Or make your own! This system really has helped us with teaching good habits and behavior because it benefits our kids in so many ways. Here are a few:
- First of all, it helps with good behavior. It provides us with a way to have conversations with our kids about their habits and choices when they are struggling. And when they are doing great, we get to give them some positive reinforcement!
- It helps them to practice goal-setting and perseverance. You can have them set a goal for how many stickers overall or you can focus on just one goal area for the week.
- It teaches them the value of money if you choose to tie it to allowance like we do.
- It models for kids that we are looking for progress and not perfection. It’s low pressure but high reward, and it’s positive!
Suggestions:
- Create a space where you’ll display the charts that is visible. We use a cork board (pictured earlier), but you could also put them on the fridge.
- If you are going to use it to help them earn money, let the choose a “money jar.” We found ours (pictured) at an antiques store. The day we went looking for them was such a fun day and really set the tone for this process.
- Be consistent. You have to really dedicate to it and really have the conversations with your kids about their progress every day.
You can click here for a printable copy of the one we use with our children.
You can click here for one that works towards a prize instead of allowance and works well for toddlers.
I hope this practice is helpful to you and your children! If you’re looking for more great posts about kids and parenting, check out these:
- A YouTube Channel You and Your Kids Will Love
- Even Your Kids Can Be Great Travelers!
- Got Bored Kids? Ten Easy Ways to Tell a Story That Will Delight Any Child!
- 5 Simple Ways to Add Adventure and Excitement to Your Kids’ Lives!
Have a good day!
-Jamie
Note: Content of this post belongs to Jamie @whatagoodday.com. All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. I’m happy for you to share this post but be sure to link to this post. Thank you.
