reward system Archives - as Jules is going

We created our own "fake economy", as my hubs likes to call it.

My 3.5 year old goes through phases of responding then not responding to different methods of discipline (ie. spankings, time outs, grounding, etc) and/or rewards (stickers, extra fun snack, candy, etc).

The "fake economy" works like this:

Every time Maggie does her "morning routine" chart all by herself (no begged assistance from mom and dad who are juggling the younger babes) she 'earns' a bread tie. Bread tie? Yep, straight got this from a psych. teacher in college. I've been collecting the for years.
She can also "earn" a bread tie by

Doing her chart without being asked
Using the potty with DRY/CLEAN panties
Listening 1st time (at parents discretion something super important)
Staying in her bed at nap and night-time

She places them in her cupcake shaped piggy bank right now. This afternoon she 'earned' a special craft. We'll be making 3 new piggy banks!

One for GOD
One for SAVING
One for SPENDING

This will be a great way to begin teaching her about finances! My hubs and I have created a list of things she can "buy" with her bread ties. This list will be bought with those ties in the Spending or Saving bank. On Sundays we will count out her ties and each one will be worth a penny. She'll then give the pennies we give her (in exchange for her ties) to our church offering. It's not quite the 10% {tithe} but it will begin to teach her that God has ask us to give back a portion of what He given us. I pray it will also teach her to be generous and that the 10% is a minimal suggestion of what we can give back.

Do you have any good ideas for teaching your child about handling finances? How about a "fake economy" of your own? PLEASE SHARE in the comments below!

I'm also linked up over at:

February 16, 2012 by Jules 1 Comment

How to you teach your child about budgeting?

Yep, those my friend are more washed out formula cans. Are you ready from some up-cycling? We have begun a new habit in our home. Partly to teach our oldest child (3.5) about prioritizing and budgeting but also just as a different system of reward. I'll tell you more about our "fake economy" later but for now I just want to tell you the 3 basic categories we are teaching her to "budget" her money into. God. Save. Spend. That simple. We give back to God just a simple part of what He's so graciously allowed us to manage. Then we save for bigger things. And we get to spend more frequently on smaller things. Here is how we made her 3 banks:

Like I said, I'm working on a future post about our "reward system" but I will just say it involves bread-ties and then divides them {currently}divides them {she calls it 'organizing' them} Evenly into the 3 categories/banks.