Little Smartie!

I wanted my children to love to read, so I read to them quite often.  Since I had so many little children at the same time, it was important to try to settle them down so we could hear the story!  We didn't have a lot of candy around, but at story book time, I would take 5 smartie rolls, and line them up in a row.  The first pile was Jesse's, then Hannah's, then Bethany's, then Christa's, and finally Danny's.  If someone was NOT paying attention, I took a smartie from their pile.  At the end of the chapter, who ever lost the FEWEST smarties got them all!

I also used smarties sometimes for after naps, putting a roll of smarties for each child, and if they went right to sleep they got their smarties when they woke up.

We made a big deal about it, and so they thought it was a big deal.  I would be VERY SAD with them if they couldn't have their smartie roll, and had them look for the time they could earn it!

Challenge:  Find a little suitable and visible "smartie-type" reward to encourage attentiveness or cooperation.   Keep it small and teach them that although there are "built-in rewards" for paying attention at the story time or taking a nap, the smartie-type reward is just a little more encouragement to cooperate!