Discussion Board: Primary Schoolers

Help! We're blessed with a fabulous six-going-on-thirteen year old boy who needs a little 'good' behavour direction at present. We've done the 'good chart', the pie pieces with rewards attached, tried the negative 'take-things-away' approach and are looking for a fresh way to 'nudge' him along. Any bright ideas or things that work for longer than a week??????

Hi Kylie, I have found the Diane Levy books really helpful in this regard. She talks about star charts, bribes abd pocket money only working for limited time periods (and then you have to keep "upping the stakes" to get compliance). Her view is that kids need to learn to do as they are told and contribute to the family simply because it is expected. I strongly recommend reading her books for some advice. Best wishes, Burmac

Hi, I do a similar thing to star chart rewards....except I have a taskboard of expectations for my son (He is only 3) eg: Clothes away in drawers, dinner, bath, teeth, toys away. When he has a star for each expectation for the day he is allowed TV time. I find this a really good way of monitoring how long he sits in front of the telly for.

Hi, I have two children that are ages 7yrs and 10 yrs. My eldest child (boy) has always loved money so we have worked our rewards and chore charts around that. Both my children have a list of jobs that they are expected to do (make bed, keep bedroom tidy, empty dishdraw, etc). Each job has a currency value which alters how much they earn each week. I also include 20 - 50 cent rewards for good behaviour and 10 cent fines for misbehaviour (bad mouthing, fighting and so forth). It works well enough and they love adding up how much they have earnt and lost each week. Sometimes my daughter (7yrs) finds it hard so instant rewards systems work well for herand of course early to bed if she's really dragging the chain. She's not so fussed on that and after a couple of nights she has usually had enough. I evaluate my chore and reward systems every 3-4 months to try and keep it fresh and motivating. Some thimes just jazzing my charts up is enough. Good luck!!

I used the money idea for a while to encourage good eating habits. It worked relly well when my daughter was 4. She got to save up her money to buy something she really wanted. She now has quite a few Littlest Pet Shop toys. Eating isn't an issue anymore.

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