Fuzzy Ball Reward System

First, yes, I know my daughter looks completely goofy in this picture. I wish I'd taken a second one, but when I looked at the little image on the camera screen she didn't look as goofy...then I saw it full size on the computer, and, well this is the result. Anyway...

A few months ago I was frustrated. My then 4 year old never listened! I'd ask her to pick up her toys, didn't happen. I'd threaten to throw them away if she didn't pick them up and even after I did throw some away it still didn't work. She would tease her little sister making her scream. And if you've ever heard my 2 year old's near glass shattering scream you'd understand my frustration with this. Then, I had a nice conversation with my best friend...

It changed things!

My friend is a former kindergarten teacher turned stay-at-home mom and she's full of all sorts of creative ideas. Seriously, if only I had a fraction of her creativity you'd all think I was the most creative person in the world. She has a daughter who's about 10 1/2 months older than mine. She was telling me about their fuzzy ball reward system. They have two jars, one is their daughter's, the other is the fuzzy ball holder. Every time their daughter picks up her toys when asked or makes her bed or is nice to her little brother, etc. she gets a fuzzy ball or two. When her jar is full, she gets a reward (a toy, going to a movie, a special treat, etc.). Brilliant!

So a couple months ago I headed out to Hobby Lobby and bought a couple jars and 100 fuzzy balls. You can't see it in the picture, but her jar has a cute little cupcake PakNak charm on it so we can tell the jars apart. My daughter has been diligently earning her fuzzy balls ever since. She's also lost some upon occasion when she didn't listen or made her sister scream one of those blood curdling screams (note to anyone who visits: don't take the little one's toys or you'll be the recipient of one of these screams...I promise you won't like it).

While she was busy earning her fuzzy balls she fell in love with a particular "toy." It was a Melissa & Doug crown that you decorate with your name and hang on your wall. She'd seen it at the zoo in Albuquerque back in April and almost picked it as her souvenir (we let each girl pick one thing), but ended up choosing some butterfly lip gloss thing instead. But ever since that day she couldn't stop talking about "that thing you use for one day and hang up" (that's how she described it). So I hopped on Amazon.com (LOVE THEM!) and did a search, found it and ordered it. Finally last night she filled up her jar and got her reward. She was soooooo excited!

Now the fuzzy balls have all been returned to the original jar and we start again. She's already earned two...let's see how long it takes this time.