earning minutes

So, I feel pretty responsible and creative today (actually, yesterday)! This is the story: We have Super Mario Galaxy, a really fantastic game for the Wii that our family (including me, thank you) have played and beaten completely (I'm talkin' getting all 121 stars on Mario AND Luigi- if you know the game) THREE (3) times. Don't call us losers. It's a great game! Highly entertaining and replayable! Plus, it doesn't help that Deron always wanted to watch us plsy it. Anyway, a friend had borrowed it, thankfully, for awhile and it was out of our house for several months.

Well, the game has made it home, and our charming 4-year old knows it. So, utilizing my powers of creativity and with a desire for him to learn the ways of earning things he loves to do (and teaching him responsibility in duties around the house, thus me getting some help getting chores done), I incorporated a reward system.

I cut out little pieces of paper and labeled them 5, 10, and 15, for the amount of minutes he can earn playing the game. He has a little box he can cash them in whenever it's "game time". Yesterday we began this and he has responded SO well! Far beyond my expectations! Yay!

He earned 5 minutes for jumping up and running to the car when it was time to leave for the gym in the morning, 10 for being an impeccable child (except for a little whining at one point) at the doctor's office, and 5 more for sorting the silverware while we were putting dishes away.

This morning he woke up asking if he could earn minutes! Not much else could make a mommy happier than a child willing to help do stuff around the house!