Rewards

My son is challenging, and he challenges everyone & everything all the time! He can argue with a door (mostly b/c he likes to hear himself talk - I think), he argues with me, and boldy enough he even argues with his father. He's been in LOTS of trouble b/c of his argumentative nature. He's gotten into some trouble at school b/c of this little "flaw" too.

They do the red/yellow/green light thing at his school, and when he started getting way too many yellow lights and finally a red light, I knew I needed to do something fast! I chose to reward him when he got a green light.

I picked the first reward and kept it simple: 3 days of green lights in a row got him a day at Monkey Joe's. He QUICKLY earned that reward. He picked the second reward: 4 days of green lights in a row got him a trip to Chuck E Cheese (which also happened to be on his birthday so it was a bonus for me to only have to take him there once!). He earned that QUICKLY too. We no longer have a problem with him coming home with yellow or red light, but I still often reward him randomly for green lights.

Today was one of those rewards. We went to Arby's and got a "free" shake. He earned it fair and square for extra good behavior. He couldn't decide which flavor to get so he asked me which one I would like to taste b/c he wanted to share his reward with me. I declined, but when I looked in the backseat, I caught him sharing with his sister. She was so excited! And then they held hands the rest of the way home with her beaming at her super-hero big brother...that was MY reward!