The New System...

I am posting about this in case it gives anyone else an idea that helps. We started a new good behavior/reward system this week that is working well so far. I made three visual reminder charts for the kids starting with the one from this post. Here are the afternoon and evening charts. The kids bring home binders each night that have to be signed, looked at, etc. I did not have a good system for checking them and it was stressing me out. I decided that the kids need to bring their binders to the kitchen after school and take them back to their backpacks (in laundry baskets in the mud room) before they go to bed. I check them sometime between those two points. I bought a bin for the kitchen to put them in so they always have a designated spot that doesn't get taken over with mail, etc.

I also wanted to tackle another problem that we have. Dirty laundry left all over the house but mostly in their rooms where it is removed. You can see that item on the evening chart.

Having this system has also seemed to eliminate most of the "I can't do it" whines that I get from the boys regarding getting dressed. They know that in order to earn the star they have to do it alone and they do.

What we also did was create a little star chart for each kid. They get one star in the morning for completing their tasks and getting ready for school on time. They get a star in the afternoon for completing those tasks and one in the evening for getting pjs on, etc. (Parker gets a few stars for doing nothing since he doesn't have school every day). They love it. They are very motivated by getting stars. Of course we also decided that they can trade their stars in for money. Allie and Caden and consequently Parker now care about money so this is good. After a week of seeing how this would go, I decided that each star will equal 10 cents. If they fill up all 15 of their stars, they get a $1 bonus for a weekly total of $2.50. This is an easy number to pay tithing on and gets them about $10/month. I am going to start having them pay for any extra food they buy at school with this money. I've also thought about charging them money for getting into my things without asking, etc. I feel like I have leverage this way. Hopefully we can also teach them about saving and money management with this system.
It really has been great so far. I don't feel like I have to be on them constantly to get ready for bed, get ready in the morning, etc. They are learning to be responsible for doing their own things without being reminded constantly. That makes me happy.