We have developed a method to our madness! (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Seriously, we have found a way to help motivate our kids to help around the house. We give them money!

No, not real money; we made fake money that we call “wishers!” Whenever the kids do chores around the house, they get wishers. If they do a spectacular job or remember their chores without being reminded, they get even more wishers. If they fight or have a negative attitude while doing their chores, they lose wishers.

Now I am sure you are wondering why it is so exciting to have fake money. Well, they use the fake money to buy stuff! When there is one lone juice box in the refrigerator, they can buy the privilege of being the only kid to get a juice box while everyone else drinks out of a boring old cup! 🙂 When someone wants to sit in a favorite chair, he/she can buy the privilege of sitting in the chair.

So, you can see that wishers also come in handy for settling disagreements! For example, if Peter and Phillip both want to play on the computer, the chance to go first can be auctioned. If Peter wins, he feels good because he gets to play on the computer first and Phillip feels good because he now has more wishers than Peter and can win the “auction” next time (as long as Anna doesn’t have more than Phillip)!

Other examples of times we give wishers are:

• When potty training kids use the potty.
• Phillip paid Peter to make his bed once.
• When school is finished on time.
• When they go above and beyond what they have to.

Note: We are being very careful not to let our kids think they can “buy” anything they want. We are making it clear to them that wishers are pretend and are not to be used on their friends to persuade them to make a toy trade…unless it is unfairly tipped to their advantage. Teasing……just teasing! 😀