The Pebble Project

This week we began "The Pebble Project."  My kids are, for the most part, generally sweet and well-behaved.  Recently, however, we've started seeing the "uglier" sides of their behavior.  I take full credit for becoming a little more lax in my discipline due to holidays, etc., and we are reaping what we sowed!  So, after trying all the "tried and true" techniques and having no results, we embarked on the "pebble project."  We'd tried it in small form a few weeks ago for manners, and it really seemed to work.  SO, we expanded it.  It's only been 3 days, but so far it's at least working a little.  My kids are both pretty quick at figuring out what we're doing (and how to manipulate it so that they control the results! :)  ), so I don't claim that it will work forever, but for now, it is, so I thought I'd share!

Each kid (my daughter's 6 and my son is almost-four) has a small jar (plastic!) on top of our kitchen china cabinet.  We have a candy jar filled with pebbles (I bought them at the dollar tree, but if you have lots of rocks around your house, you could definitely use the "real thing).  Our main struggle right now is not listening the first time they are asked to do something.  So, anytime we have to repeat ourselves, the offender receives a pebble in the jar.   Or, if they neglect to do their regular chores (making bed and picking up dirty laundry from the floor), they get a pebble.   Each pebble represents an "extra" chore to do.  Now, my precocious daughter keeps trying to convince us that SHE should pick her chore, but no such luck for her.  We are trying to choose unpleasant (but doable) chores.  For instance, my son had to wipe down all the baseboards the other day.  Not a difficult task (and he's much closer to the ground than we are!), but it took a while and he was over it by the time he finished.  Today, he had to scrub our linoleum entry way on his hands and knees with a wet cloth for 5 minutes.   My daughter had to wipe down the kitchen table and bathroom cabinet doors.  So, nothing hard, just manual labor.  They cannot watch TV or play the Wii until their pebbles are all gone.   That has been motivating for them.  Also, if they can ever go a full day with no pebbles, they earn a coin towards fun activities.  Hopefully, we are teaching them some responsibility as well as getting some tasks done that are on MY to-do list, thus giving me more time to play with them!  Hope someone else can use this idea and even improve it!