A marble in the jar.

A new reward system has been put into action here and I'm loving it! The tv situation had gotten seriously out of control with Patrick being a total couch commando and I was tired of the kids never doing anything when asked the first time. I wanted to have something that could be done calmly and NOT involve them getting something material. A friend told me about a method she saw on Nanny 911 and it's been working great. Are you ready?

• Each child has a jar with their name and every time they do something the first time or without being asked they get a marble in their jar. Extra marbles can be earned for volunteering to do extra chores.

• When they earn 5 marbles they get to redeem them for 30 minutes of tv time. They can save the 5 and wait until they get to 10 and either have 60 minutes of tv time or 60 minutes on the computer. This is the *only* way to watch tv or play on the computer.

• If only one child has 5 marbles then they get to watch in solitude in our room. If they are caught putting more marbles in their jar than they earned, they lose all of them and start over.

• They are allowed to watch videos on the VCR in the boys' room or Living Scripture dvd's downstairs.

In the past week, a total of 90 minutes has been watched.