Critter Girl's Reward Chart

So as you know, I am a mother of two. My daughter, Critter Girl, spends every other weekend (Thursday through Tuesday) with her daddy and I have my son, the Little Critter, 6 days a week because he spends every Sunday with his Ninny. I have been struggling with Critter Girl not wanting to listen for, well, her whole life, honestly. Yes I realize that she’s not quite 4 yet (April 29) and that children that age are known for not listening. But with the Little Critter being 7 months old now, I just can’t handle the not listening. So I devised this reward chart and we implemented it the first week of 2014. So far, we have been doing an AMAZING job. Her daddy dislikes the idea and tells me that I am a drill sergeant for expecting so much from her. But he only sees a list of tasks, not what they actually are.

The blue tasks are daily required tasks (except the one that is marked weekly), the green are the preferred tasks (habits I hope she will get into) and the pink ones are the bonus tasks worth double points because they are things we have been struggling with. Although since we started the chart, they seem to be the things that she nails most often…  But even though she is only 3 ½, I feel these are things that she should be doing on a regular basis. For every completed task, we get a sticker. We total the points at the end of each day and again at the end of the week.

The required daily tasks are feeding and watering her rabbit (more on that another day), brushing her hair or getting it done for her, brushing her teeth, picking up her toys and eating meals without drama. Her weekly required task is to clean out her rabbit cage.

There are a few things here I need to clarify. First one is the “I made my own breakfast” task. I am not asking her to COOK her own breakfast. But she is capable of pouring her own cereal and sugar (she doesn’t use milk) or grabbing a banana and peeling it herself. The second one is the “I read to my brother” task. This is not so much something we have an issue with, as much a way to teach her to respect books. She likes to rip the pages out and this gives her something to do with the books other than destroy them. She can’t read so playing with books alone was boring for her, whereas making up stories to go with the pictures for her brother is much more entertaining. J

We take the totaled points each day and add them to her Reward Bank under the “Deposit’ column, as well as any bonus amounts. We then add any fines or penalties to the “Withdrawal” column. I put the description of the transaction in the “Description” column. Her descriptions are generally one of 4: “Chart (# reg & # bonus)”, “Bonus [Insert reason for bonus points]”, “[Reason for withdrawal such as Yelling, Not listening, etc.]”, "Daddy's House {For the days she is with him}" or, for the days that I forget to add stickers/points until AFTER we’ve done her Reward Bank “+# Chart (# reg & # bonus)”. Then we total the balance of the account and place that in… where else, but the “Balance” column.

You are probably wondering what we do with her points once she has them. Well, we sat down one day and came up with a list of Rewards and then I decided on the point values for each, making them attainable, but also a challenge. I also came up with a list of Fines, or things that would lose her points. I chose these things based off of things that we currently are struggling with. You can find them in the chart to the right. So far, the only things she has not lost points for are not sharing, hitting and destroying property.

 So far our results have been phenomenal. She has begun doing quite a few of the tasks on her own without being asked. Here’s one example: She gets out of bed, makes her bed, gets dressed and then goes and puts her PJs in Nana’s dirty hamster (dirty clothes hamper. LOL). No one is awake at this time, normally. She will go in and wake up Nana on her way to the hamster. So no one is telling her to do these things. But she knows she gets stickers for each completed task and is very quick to remind me once she wakes me up as well. J Her behavior has improved greatly in just the two weeks since we have started this! It’s amazing!!!

I have never known anyone else to use a system like this, so I would definitely love to get some feedback on it!! All comments, questions and thoughts are welcome!!!