Reward Jars

When Handley was only 3 or 4 I started doing something we called "marble jar" as a reward system for her.  She would earn marbles to add to her jar for good behavior and when the jar was full she would get to pick a special treat or outing.  It worked like a charm and we started doing it with Harper, too.  Then our house went on the market what feels like forever ago, I put the jars away and they were long forgotten.  Fast forward a few years and now that we are getting settled into the new house I knew I wanted to reinstate a similar reward system.  I also wanted to incorporate chores into this system because they LOVE helping around the house and BEG for jobs to do to help me out.  Beg no more my loves, because now we have a nice organized way to keep track of their chores, their responsibilities and also their good behavior.

I saw a similar idea on Pinterest a while back and this week finally was able to get around to making it. First I found the wooden board and mason jars at Hobby Lobby and picked up the pipe clamps at Home Depot.

I nailed the pipe clamps onto the board (and then Robby went behind me and reinforced with a screw because he didn't think the small little nail would hold a jar full of rocks.)  

Then I fitted the jars and tightened the clamps.

Next I painted the top board and then added the kids names above their jars.  

Lastly I found tiny little clothes pins at Michaels and hot-glued those on so that I can clip the chore lists and change them out easily as needed.  The kids earn a pebble for each thing they do on the list and also for good behavior.  Basically my goal is to "catch them being good" and reward them for it.  When their jar is full they can either choose to get an allowance or go on a special outing (frozen yogurt, a trip to the movies, etc.).

I love the way it turned out and although it was time consuming, it's something I see me using with them for a long time and it actually looks OK hanging in our kitchen.  I knew I wanted it to be in a place where the kids would have access to it and that would be within their reach.  It's hanging on the window in our kitchen that looks out to the screened porch.  I'm keeping the mason jar of pebbles sitting on the window ledge so the kids can easily add to their jar when needed.