GUMBALLS GALORE

Today on my personal facebook page I mentioned something about our 

{Gumball Rewards System}. 

All my mommy friends were thinking... what?! What are you talking about?!

I started to share how we have used GUMBALLS in our beloved FAMILY COLORS to reward our kiddos for good behavior or chores, using positive reinforcement against undesirable behaviors, and then turning that into tracking our allowance at the same time... not to mention using the same gumballs as payment for things like iPad time and rescuing their toys that have been held hostage in "Daddy & Mommy's Ransom Box". 

Interested?! Well, then here we go...

Every Sunday, at the beginning of the week, each kiddo starts with TWENTY gumballs. The rest are in my "jar" (which is really a large, round vase). 

They can earn gumballs for doing great things...

The full list of gumball earnings

However, they can also LOSE gumballs for let's call it "poor" behavior...

"How To Lose Gumballs"

At the end of the week, each gumball left in their jar is worth a NICKEL. 

If they do absolutely nothing, and don't lose anything, they will 

still have their original 20 gumballs. 

That's a dollar! 

However, each child has the potential to get 50 gumballs 

(because that's how many I have in each color)... $2.50!!!

 I don't know how you all do allowance, but $2.50 is a lot for a 5 year old! 

I do feel the need to tell you all, however, that we have not EVER had anyone 

get more than 25 gumballs in a week.

 So, unless you have a particularly perfect child 

(in which case you probably don't need this), 

you most likely will not go broke over this! 

The other part to this, is that the gumballs become currency in our house. 

You want some time on the iPad? Sure! 

1 gumball = 5 minutes

Got a toy taken hostage from mommy because you didn't pick it up? 

See the original idea on pinterest

No biggie! Just pay the ransom money... 

1 gumball = 1 item 

It's really proving to be helpful for our oldest children, in particular. The 3 & 5 year old aren't really earning a lot of extra gumballs right now, but that's just because they haven't quite figured it out. However, they sure do understand that gumballs are MONEY at the end of the week, and they are not happy to lose them! 

So, hopefully that's been helpful to some of you moms (& dads) trying to 

find ways to motiviate your little ones! 

Some days I just let the gumballs work for themselves. Then if I'm feeling really wonderful, 

like today, I might create extra gumball earning opportunities. 

When I took the first picture (above) this morning, our 5 year old had lost 

all but one gumball. 

I want him to have success, so I gave him lots of opportunities 

to do well and earn gumballs.

It works for us! We found what makes them want to do well: 

MONEY!

So, once you find what works... RUN WITH IT!

Mommy Fail

Tonight I had my first major FAIL with our 5 year old since we began this journey.

Let me start at the beginning:

It's 4th of July today. This is one of my favorite holidays. Birthdays are #1, but as far as actual holidays goes... 

1. Christmas & Hannukah

2. 4th of July

3. Valentine's Day

Also, my husband is a huge history buff, which means we love the holiday, but also the meaning behind it all! So, as you can see, it's a big deal to us. 

Every year we go to the big, Independence Day Parade. Our house is on the historic end of town, which means the parade route is at the front of our subdivision. So each year that we've lived at this house we get up early, put on our red, white and blue, and we drive up the street. When our kids are bigger we will probably walk or ride our bikes, but for now driving is best. 

The kids collect stickers from city representatives, candy from Boy Scouts & dance as the marching bands come by. It's perfect! 

Usually after the parade, we head home for lunch. Then the plan is to swim... somewhere! 

After swimming, we BBQ with family and head for the park to watch fireworks. Yes, FIREWORKS! You know, those big booming multicolored explosions? You know, those things that even a calm person can feel in their chest. Right! So, we did that. 

We also forgot the noise-canceling headphones. 

I think you can all imagine what happened from there. Screaming, crying chaos. 

We made it through with his head in my chest & a blanket over his ears, but that little monkey will be enjoying fireworks from the comfort of Grammy's big back window next year. 

Hope you all survived the 4th with your crew!