5 Different Ideas We’ve Used to Motivate Our Kids with Their Chores, Schoolwork & Behavior

It’s one of the tops struggles as a parent I think – how to motivate your kids. As a parent for 14 years and mom of 7 kids, I’ve tried my fair share of ways to motivate my kids over the years and thought I would share some of the best ideas with you today.

Most of these things I have found we tend to rotate through. It keeps our motivational systems interesting and fun for our kids.

The Claw

My children spotted this beauty the second I walked in the door with it and immediately started asking to play it. Little did they know, I had big plans for our new claw machine! My kids are constantly asking for snacks and I’d been looking for a way to reward good behavior in our home. This was the perfect solution!

The Claw machine came with it’s own plastic coins that I now hand out as a reward throughout the day. Some of the things my kids are rewarded for include:

• Cleaning
• Helping a younger sibling
• Doing a good job on their schoolwork
• Overall good behavior

We’ve had The Claw now for 8 years and it continues to be a great source of motivation to my kids. The best part is, they aren’t even getting candy every time! They have so much fun playing it that they don’t even care too much when they lose. By the end of the day, they may end up having won a piece or two from the handful of coins they are earning each day. Admittedly, I’ve played it a few times myself and it is a lot of fun!

Dropster

This has maybe be my kids’ FAVORITE way of motivating them. It’s like a version of The Price is Right’s Plinko. There are 9 slots at the bottom where you can list prizes and rewards.

Over the years some of the prizes we’ve listed have been things like:

• Candy bars
• Trading cards (football, Pokemon, etc.)
• Toys
• Books
• Snack Foods
• Money
• Staying Up Past Bedtime
• Special one-on-one time with Mom or Dad
• Special Movie Night

For Dropster I used tickets. Each weekday my kids had an opportunity to earn 2 tickets. They earned 1 ticket for completing their chores without complaining and a second ticket for doing their schoolwork. On the weekends they just earned a ticket for chores.

They needed to cash in 5 tickets for one Dropster token. They could also however use their tickets for screen time. Every ticket was equal to 30 minutes of screen time.

If we watched something together as a family they were not required to spend their tickets on that. Because of this system, my kids had the opportunity for screen time every day but they often decided not to spend their tickets so they could do Dropster instead.

It was a win-win for us because it meant my kids also spent more time outside and far less time on screens.

We are taking a break from Dropster right now but when we were doing it they were so excited for Friday night to arrive because that was Dropster night. You can buy Dropster HERE.

Kid of the Week

During the school year we started a “Kid of the Week” award. I even designed certificates to hand out.

A child was chosen for kid of the week based on their attitude and work throughout the week.

Only one child could earn it each week but they would earn certain rewards when they won including a new book (I have a shelf of books for them to choose from), they get to choose dinner one night that week, and earn a special ice cream.

This obviously works better if you have a few kids.

Eureka

My husband shared an entire post about our Eureka Reward System. Rather than type it all out, just check out that blog post.

In summary, with Eureka children earn gold nuggets they can cash in for prizes and can make their way to the top of the list if they earn the most gold nuggets that week.

Sunday is Our Day of Rest

Everyone needs a break! Since God says we should rest on the Sabbath, we practice that in our home. That means that on Sundays our children are given a break from their chores, to the best of our abilities.

Sure, sometimes they still need to pitch in for a few minutes to clear their dishes from the table or unload a dishwasher, but for the most part, we prioritize resting on Sunday.

Knowing that they will get a break on Sunday helps my kids to have a better attitude about the work they are responsible for the rest of the week.