The Treat Jar

This is our "treat jar."

Happy treat jar, currently full of red M&M's for Valentines Day (even though they were on
sale after Christmas...I just separated the red and green.  Red for Valentine's, green will be
for St. Patrick's Day.

It may not look like much, but this has become a very important feature in our home.  A bunch of months ago I decided was tired of constantly hounding our children about the things they do that they shouldn't and I decided to look for a different approach. 

I found this awesome jar that my mom had given me.  (She filled it with gummy worms and given it to me when I was in the middle of my Crohn's disease nightmare because she said I was allowed to eat all the worms I wanted while I was adjusting to the disease that now goes with me everywhere.  You know the song, "No one likes me, everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat worms?"  In our family eating worms means pouting a bit about feeling picked on, not necessarily that you don't have any friends.)

I filled the jar with simple treats (M&M's, Sweedish Fish, Skittles, etc) and when one of my sweethearts does something wonderful -- and unepected -- they get a treat from the treat jar.  Things like sharing without being asked, setting the table when it isn't your turn, letting someone else go first, or reading a story to a younger sibling qualify for a treat.  These acts have to be unrequested or they don't count. 

The rules of the treat jar also state that if you come to me telling me about some amazing thing you have done then you nix your own treat.  However, if one of your siblings notices your kindness and reports it to me then you can still earn a treat.  This rule has helped my little ones notice the nice things that other people do for them (because if they report someone else chances are that that person will be more inclined to report them later on). 

The treat jar has actually been a really good thing in our house.  I think we'll keep this one going for a while.