Do everything without complaining and arguing.

I hate pinterest.  I'm not sure why, I just can't do it.  From what I hear though it saves me a lot of time.  However, I love pinterest ideas.  If one of my friends posts something onto facebook from pinterest I will usually check it out.  If they thought it was good surely I will to.  One day my friend posted this idea. 

Make a jar,  (ours said:  Do everything without complaining and arguing.  Philippians 2:14) fill it with 20 quarters, any time the child was caught arguing or complaining they must give a quarter to whoever they were arguing with.  At the end of the week whatever money remains in their jar they get to keep.  We did it a little different.  I used 20 dimes instead (and we may change it to nickles) (I did the quick math, $5 a week x 2 kids x 4 weeks=$40 a month).  I would also say to them the first time I heard it, "you are arguing, would you like to give me money?"  Usually that was enough to stop the arguing, they did however sometimes lose money.  This idea actually worked for us, arguing has gone way down.  

 

Since the idea worked for us and arguing and complaining have decreased I decided to change it up a bit.  Our lastest issue (surely my kids aren't the only ones out there) is that I find myself repeating a lot of instructions.  I'm like a broken record, put on your shoes, put on your shoes, put on your shoes or pick up your towel, pick up your towel, pick up your towel.  It gets old quick.  So, I'm changing our verse.  Our new verse is "Children, obey your parents int he Lord for this is right."  Epheisans 6:1.  When I have to repeat myself, they will give me 1 coin.  We also let them earn money back for extra good behavior.  I don't want them to get down to a few and think why bother being good now, I've lost everything anyway.  Good behavior is what we are striving for.

 

What do a 3 year old and 5 year old need money for?  Currently they are beginning to save up money for christmas shopping.  Each year I take them to the dollar tree and allow them to pick out gifts for everyone in the family.  We do the dollar tree for price reasons since they don't totally grasp the concept of money.  Really does dad or grandma want something from the dollar tree, probably not but what I feel like we are teaching them is to be thoughtful.  They really look around and think about the person they are buying things for. Each child is taken indivitually and buys for all other 14 family memebers that will be there Christmas morning.  (another reason we hit the dollar tree with 5 kids, I do this with my siblings also).  It usually takes an hour or longer and they aren't allowed to buy anything for themselves, this is about other people.   I want them to learn to be thoughful and I want them to realize it isn't all about getting stuff but also giving stuff.  It also isn't the same if I just give them money as it is if they have worked to earn it. 

 

Last year my little brother (age 10) learned a hard lesson.  He didn't want to do any extra stuff to earn money.  We kept saying no one was going to give him money he could olny presents with what he had earned and he must buy one for each of the other 4 kids because they don't understand not getting something.  He ended up only having $6 and had to choose who else to spend the money on.  That was a hard one for me as we were shopping and he was so disappointed in himself and couldn't get something for everyone.  It was also hard Christmas morning on him when he didn't have something for everyone else.  Sometimes stuff like that makes the greatest impression.  This year he is moving up to walmart or whereever he wants to shop, we have decided $1 at his age with his opportunities is no longer enough.  I'm happy to say, he is already doing well saving up, he doesn't want a repeat of last year. :)