The Obedience Jar

In an effort to try and get my children to be more obedient, I started this "obedience jar". Every time they obey quickly, they get a "fuzz ball" in the jar (they are actually pom-poms, I couldn't find any marbles). I have it organized so each child has their own color so we can see who is obeying and who needs to work more at it. When the jar is full, we reward them with a family outing of ice cream. The person with the most balls gets a little extra something special with their ice cream. In the case of our visit to Coldstone, Caleb got two mix-ins instead of just one.

The first week, the kids were all over it and we filled the jar by Friday night, which was when we went out for the ice cream. However, we have not filled the jar since, and that was back in the first part of July. We've come close several times, but when they are being disobedient, they lose balls, so it's been back-and-forth a lot.

And lately, I haven't been so consistent with it. The biggest problem is that I have to keep it out of reach of the little ones and then the big ones can't help me out with it and I don't always remember to put a ball in the jar, even when I've told them I will.

So I need to work on it more, but it has been helping motivate them.