Monday, August 20, 2012

My most brilliant bribe yet

All right, I saw it on pinterest...but I modified it for my family.

The lady made a chart 1-100 and decided on a secret number that if the child guessed, they would get a determined prize.  They had to earn their guesses by reading for 20 minutes.  I added that for every chore from my chore list they did, they could choose a number. 

Sweet.  The girls are excited.  The prize is a $10 gift card to Build a Bear. 
Lindsay helps me pull weeds for 20 minutes.  Chooses her number.  Not the magical number.  She cries and screams about it - as only Lindsay could/would.  She calms down and washes Lexi's bottles.  Chooses again, same as before follows. 

Maddie and Macie read together for 20 minutes.  Maddie lets Macie choose first.  She puts her cute little finger on her chin and says, "Is there a number two-three on there?"  I look at her and try to determine if she can read minds or if she's just really lucky.  She's just really lucky, I decide.  I hesitate and think, should I change the number?  I didn't write it down anywhere, they would never know.  But, after a few moments of deliberation, I let her know that she chose my number. 
Sigh.
So much for getting 99 chores out of that plan.
There was much rejoicing by Macie.
A little complaining by Maddie.
And much wailing by Lindsay. 

And when the lady asked why she was getting her bear, Macie told her that she earned it.  Ha!  She was lucky - or can read minds really well, because she actually just won again!
We have since modified the system that everyone has their own sheet and prize they are working for.  So far, so good. 

1 comment:

Janet said...

That is a great idea!