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Ellie and Addison

Behavior System

This is my new behavior system for the girls. We used our Star Charts for a long time and they worked great, but at the Power of Moms Retreat I attended we talked a lot about family economy and how important it is to teach your children how to earn and save money to purchase their own things. Ellie always has a new doll or something in mind she’d love to have and I like being able to say “sure you can have that! You just need to save your money….” The timer was also a suggestion at the retreat. I am loving this timer! Makes everything more of a game for the kids. I’ll say “lets pick up the room and you can each earn a quarter….let’s set the timer and see if we can do it in 5 minutes!” They love racing against the timer. They get paid a quarter for doing their “jobs” – little things I have them help me with each day around the house and they can also earn some extra money at random times for really good behavior or having a good attitude during homework, etc. It’s a great way to teach my 1st grader about money too. Things like four quarters make a dollar and it takes twenty dollars to buy that new Ariel doll at Target. They each have their own special place to keep their money and it is really motivating them.

I bought several of these coin counters at Brookstone a few years ago for gifts for family at Christmas and I loved them so much that Kenny bought one for me too. I still get a kick out of pushing the little button and hearing all of my change organize itself! :) Fun holiday gift if you don’t know what to get a certain person on your list. The timer I just bought at Target.

What would we do without Target?
Save a lot of money I guess. But that wouldn’t be much fun now would it? :)

xoxo, Erin
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15 thoughts on “Behavior System

  1. First to comment – how fun is that! Our kids still tell us … I know sym (save your money). Its life and a valuable lesson. You are awesome and agree – what would we do without Target! Love that store. Could wander for hours.

  2. Are you a Dave Ramsey fan? This reminds me so much of what he teaches for kids. He talks about children earning commission, then he has them put money in an envelope system (similar to the adults) where they put a portion in savings, a portion in giving, and keep a portion for their own desires. Also, if you go to daveramsey.com they have other financial lessons for the kiddos, too! One thing that Dave teaches in Financial Peace, as it relates to your children, is that there are certain things that they should just do out of love for you as their mom, like clear their own dishes and make their own beds and I am a fan of that too ;-)

  3. Like the PP, we’re Dave Ramsey fans around our house too. We took FPU, are out of debt and are striving to teach our children to do the same. Our oldest {3} just got to go spend his money for the first time to buy a new Thomas train. It. was. awesome. We give him three coins for his chores: one for giving, one for spending, and one for saving. He’ll even tell us what each coin is for as he puts it into his compartmentalized bank. I can’t wait to see how we’ve “changed our family tree”!

  4. Erin, this idea is great! I tried a chore chart with stickers but it didn’t really work. It seemed like for my 3 and 4 year old, a week was too long for them to understand the concept of rewarding good behavior and doing chores. So I like the idea of an immediate reward (the coins) much better. Thank you for sharing.

    I’m totally going to buy myself this coin sorter. I keep my change in a ziplock baggy in the closet! How is that for sad? My coins need to be upgraded :)

  5. Thanks for coming by my blog to answer my question. Funny thing is, I had read this post, but I thought maybe you used your timer for something to do with organizing your papers too. You are so organized!

  6. Hi Erin! You! ARE! Wonderful! I remember that year of the coin organizer gifts, b/c I thought that was a fabulous find! Love it still. And you know that whole real estate file….I love that one…I mean love house hunting, not the part about you moving slightly farther away…:)

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