Motivational Games and Ideas
Page 2
Sibling Peace
Use three cups of dimes (or more if you have more children, one for each child and one for you). Start each child with 5 dimes in their cup. For each dime they play together, eat together, or just generally get along, add a dime to their cup.
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Each time they fuss, argue or fight take a dime away and add it to your cup. We used this when our two youngest children seemed to not be able to be in the same room together for more than 10 minutes without wanting to destroy the other person. After a few days of being very strict on the dimes, and making sure they received a dime each time they spoke kindly (or not so meanly, anyway) to each other, the arguing diminished by about 80%, leaving a much more peaceful home for everyone. |
It was well worth the roll of dimes.
Submitted by
John
Treasure Hunt
Each week use a small prize (see list of possible prizes). Make one envelope for each day of the school week. In each envelope put a clue as to where the prize is hidden. Each day as homework is completed, organized and put back into the school back where it can be found to be handed in the next day, he receives the clue for that day.
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By the end of the week, if he gathered up all the clues for the week, he should be able to go on the treasure hunt, using the clues to claim his prize. Give your child the envelope for the first day only. This clue should lead him to the next hidden spot where the next clue is hidden. Make sure you remember to put only one envelope out each day in the proper place. You might want to wait until you see that homework is just about completed before placing the next clue in the hidden spot. |
Card Cut
We used this when my son entered high school. He was concerned that he would not be able to keep up with "high school" work and I was determined to make him succeed at 9th grade so he would want to go on and finish high school We used a deck of cards and gave different cards, different worth, for example, we did 2-9 worth $2.00 each, 10-K was worth $3.00 each and A was worth $5.00. For every "A" that he brought home, these could be in homework, tests, quizzes, projects, anything, he got one cut of the cards. So he saved them up and on Fridays we would get out the deck of cards and he would have a blast!! He really looked forward to this and it gave him money for the weekend. There were some weeks that he got over $20.00 but it was worth it to see his smile every time he had another "A" to add to the pile.
Nerf Basketball
This game works well if your child is athletic or can relate to sports.
For each homework assignment handed in, the child receives one try at making a basket. Each basket that he gets earns him money or prize or some extra treat.
Banking Good Behaviors
One week we did the bank thing, where we bought poker chips and put up a chart and for each item on the chart he would bank some poker chips, for example, doing his chores without reminder might be 10 chips, handing in homework might be 5 chips. Anyway, we broke it down to the behaviors that we wanted to work on and we had a second chart that would list what he could "buy" with his chips: an extra hour up on weekends, and extra hour of tv, going to movies, etc.