I saw on Nanny 911 last week where they had a toy store in their home. The kids had a glass jar called a *Do Good Jar* I think. Anyway, my friend and I started this with our kids. (well i am doing with my youngest ds 4.5--not the older ones) Anyway, everytime I catch him doing someting *good* he gets to put a glass bead in his jar. After he gets up to X amt he can go in my closet and purchase a toy at his toy store. I went to Wal-Mart and bought about 10 toys (cheap clearance items and then a couple of things i knew he had been wanting)... It is working out great so far. He has some issues with picking up his dirty laundry, throwing away his pull up in the mornings, and talking really ugly to me (thinking he is being really funny). WOW! this morning he said 'Mom, did you know I threw my pull up in the trash?' Last night I caught him helping his big brother with a job instead of pestering his brother!!! Dh caught him putting his laundry in the laundry basket instead of the living room floor. LOL!

He just cleaned off his spot at the table after breakfast without being asked.

I hope this lasts and doesnt fizzle out. I can also take beads away. (he has to remove them from his jar himself)

Interesting...

By Tink on Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 12:03 pm:

I saw this last week. It's a great way to positively reinforce good behavior instead of always saying "NO!" and "Don't do that". Kids do great with a super visual reminder of how they are acting.

By Amy~moderator on Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 01:22 pm:

Excellent idea! I'm going to do this. Thanks!

By Palmbchprincess on Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 02:41 pm:

Do y'all think this would work with my dks? (Almost 3) They don't seem to be understanding charts and stuff, but I could be doing it wrong. Any tips for younger kids?

By Marcia on Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 04:09 pm:

I'm going to be giving this a shot with my kids. I just told them about it, and they think it's a neat idea. I'm sure it'll really hit home when one gets something and the others aren't there yet.
Thanks for the idea!

By Insaneusmcwife on Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 05:12 pm:

Wow that might be something worth trying at my house. My kids are driving me crazy lately.

By Mrsheidi on Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 05:30 pm:

The Nanny lady will be on Oprah tomorrow!

By Colette on Thursday, January 20, 2005 - 08:36 pm:

They do this at my school. Except it's a class thing, if the whole class can walk down the hall, or be quiet, or line up when they are supposed to, they get so many marbles. When the jar is full they vote and get either an ice cream sundae party or a pizza party.

By Rayanne on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 09:07 am:

I'll have to remember this for Rylee. Thanks.

By Conni on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 10:26 am:

Colette that is really cool! How fun for the kids. I remember one of my ds teachers putting blanks up on the board to fill in, a couple of words or a phrase. The kids would earn letters to the phrase as the weeks went by. When it was all filled in (like 'Ice Cream Party' would be one example), they would get what they spelled! He loved that and was always traumatized when the class was orinary and they got a letter erased. lol!

Well, Blake has already had some set backs. lol I knew the first couple of days were toooo good to be true. But he now knows this is serious business. ;) We asked him to go get his PJ's on last night (2x- nicely) and he ignored each of us. So, I quietly said 'I guess you need to take a bead out of your 'Do Good Jar' for not listening and following directions.' Well, you would have thought I just ripped his arm off or something. He hit the floor screaming and said it hurt to bad to take it out--so I did it for him while he watched. LOL

Our problem is that he is our *baby* and we have catered to his every whim. Well, now we are having to fix what 'we' really broke by spoiling the little toot rotten. Poor kid. He's a great kid, very loving, and very funny. He's just gotten use to mommy running along behind him doing everything for him.

I finally priced all the toys this morning. Took me 3 days to find my blank labels (blushing)... I showed him how many beads he needed in order to buy each toy and he was thrilled. He was hopping around the house looking for things to help with so he could earn more beads. lol Hey~ whatever works!

I surprised him this morning- he had colored some papers at school really well and had gotten a *SUPER* sticker on them. So I explained to him that it's really important to try your hardest in school and it looked like to me he was doing that, so he got his *bead* back that he lost last night. ;)

Actually they arent beads -- we are using those colored glass rocks that you get in a bag. Not sure why we keep calling them beads. Blake calls them *magic beans*.

Hope this works for others. I like to watch Nanny 911-- not because my kids are that horrible. I can always use new ideas to use on them tho. Its fun to see what the Nanny comes up with.

By Andi on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 12:19 pm:

That is so funny, I saw the end of that show and decided I would do that with DS. He got 1-5 marbles for doing chores around the house and when he got 50 in the jar he earned his new Firefighter suit he has been wanting, He just got it last night!!!!

By Kayleesmommy on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 04:36 pm:

Wow! That is a neat trick. My dd is only going on 7 months so I will have to remember that or write it down for when she becomes a toddler. It might be a good idea to tape all of the Nanny 911 shows.

By Kaleighsmommy on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 05:00 pm:

I didn't see the show, but I want to watch it. That sounds like such a good idea. Kaleigh might still be too young for it to work, but I'll definitely keep it in mind.

By Kayleesmommy on Monday, January 24, 2005 - 01:22 am:

When is this show on and what channel?

By Children03 on Monday, January 24, 2005 - 06:05 am:

I use to do this. I had a jar for each of my girls names on it and it was called "My Happy Heart Jar" and every time the girls obeyed me the first time and every time I saw them doing something kind for another person or preferring someone over themselves, I would let them put one skittle into the jar and when their jars were full, they got to buy one treat. I used an empty jar from baby food because it was a small jar and could fill up quickly. My girls loved it.