After holidays, sickness and general out of routine grumps hit our house recently, we needed something to lift the tone of sibling relationships. We have used several different systems for boosting kind behaviour and general character recognition in the past, but this time I wanted something similar to our praise plates; without a “prize” at the end. Our marble jar and treasure tree charts worked well although there was an end goal or reward that we were working towards – see the marble jar is full for a full explanation of the difference between bribes, rewards and goal incentives.
Our treasure tree reward system with a slightly different ending than planned.
After reading “The Weed With An Ill Name” we have had a lot of discussions and prayer based on the concept of pulling the character “weeds” out of our hearts and replacing them with Godly character “flowers.” I decided to base our system around this idea and build on the interest that was already there by calling our chart “Flowers of Godly Character – Pull out those weeds!”
Each yellow centre is given the child’s initial who is “growing” the flower and as Godly character is displayed they are able to add a petal. Five petals complete a flower and another is started. Having each flower initialed means they are able to see the flowers they have grown, but the pot of flowers is something the whole family is working together to grow.
No reward other than being able to see the flowers you have planted being added to the pot is given, but even so, the children have huge smiles and are very happy to be awarded a petal.
For more ideas on building character and family identity see:
Filling their love tank: the 5 love languages of children
Spoiled walls; bickering and sibling conflict
101 family night ideas Relationships – joyful or difficult, they all need the 5 A’s
Filed under: Christian Education, character, Sundays and the Sabbath | Tagged: behaviour reward systems, bribes, brothers and sisters fighting, building Godly character, character, character reward charts, character training, managing large families, rewards and goal incentives, sibling relationships and bickering, teaching children to get along |
angathome 
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