In our home we have a really unique way to reward and “punish” our child. We have been using this method since our kid was 5 years old to much success. We call it the wheel of fortune and misfortune
We bought a spin the wheel from ikea, which has about 24 different spokes. Each spoke is labelled with a number from 1-24 and there is one special spoke that is coloured orange. The spoke that is orange is the get out of jail for free card – which means that if my kid spins the wheel of misfortune she doesn’t get any punishment or if she spins the wheel of fortune she doesn’t get a gift.
The rest of the numbers corresponds with a reward or punishment that our daughter is in charge of creating for herself and it’s jotted down in her note book. She’s allowed to update the punishment and reward list once a year so it’s age appropriate. Some of the things on her rewards list is a scoop of ice cream, longer tv time, a family game of uno, an extra story at bed time etc.
Some of the punishments include doing jumping jacks, doing Mandarin homework, no tv for the day etc.
When she does a good deed she earns herself a spin on the wheel of fortune. The gift she gets will depend on the number on the wheel, which she cross checks against her note book.
If she does something naughty and needs to be punished she spins the wheel of misfortune and also matches the numbers against the punishment list in her book.
This way she’s in charge of rewarding and punishing herself. The get out of jail card adds an element of fun and also reality to the whole game, as it reflects real life that sometimes you may do something bad and get away with it.
Hope our unique reward and discipline method helps you with raising your child!
