In our homeschool this week… I updated my “prize bucket” for my six-year-old Joel. The prize bucket is something I started for him a few years ago to provide motivation for good behavior and achievements. I keep random things in it that Joel might like: stickers, candy, cars, balloons, airplanes, etc. Up to this point, I haven’t been very structured about it. Whenever we had an especially good day or he did something really good, I would let him pick something from the bucket.
Recently I noticed that all of the “cool” prizes always disappeared first, and things like sticker, pencils and playdough were always left in the bucket. So I decided it was time to revamp the system.
Then I made a list of all of the things Joel can do for school to earn points. A perfect math sheet or phonics sheet gets 1-3 points, an A on a test gets 5-10 points. He gets 1 point for every book he reads or 25 points when he finishes a “reader” book (like the McGuffey Reader). Then there are things he can memorize, like the continents and oceans (which are worth 25) or the states (which are worth 50), and he gets 3 points for every scripture verse he memorizes. When he can get 100 addition problems right in less than 5 minutes, he will get 50 points. I will also be giving him good attitude points on occasion.
So far it seems to be working! I unveiled the new and improved prize bucket system to him this week, and he was so excited. Yesterday, he read three extra books and then today, besides doing all of his schoolwork very well, he read the last five lessons in his first McGuffey Reader so that he could “buy” the Matchbox Space Shuttle he had his eye on. He was very happy and proud of himself for working so hard and earning a cool prize.
How do you motivate your younger students? Have you ever tried a prize system? What does your incentive program look like? We’d love to hear about in the comments below.
What a fun idea!!
Popping in from HMJ.
Hi! what a fun and creative idea.
I am stopping by from The Hip Homeschool Hop. I’m a new follower and would appreciate a follow back. 🙂
Thanks Stefanie and Renita. Wish I had thought of this when my girls were young. 🙂