Kate's Good Girl Jars

Friday night Kate went out on a date with her daddy and I'm so proud of her. A few weeks ago I came across this post on a blog I follow and I thought it was such a good idea and I wanted to start it at our house. Basically, we have started a little jar system to reward Kate in small ways for her good behavior on a daily basis. I feel like in the "terrible two's" stage I'm constantly saying no and getting on to her so I wanted to find a way to encourage her good behavior and put some positive reinforcement in her. (I guess my degree in Human Development and Family Sciences is kicking in a little! Haha!)

The way our jar system works is there are six different jars each with different little odds & ends in them and each jar represents something different. I adjusted her jars a bit from the original post to fit her needs a little better; hers are for helping clean, going to bed well & having a good night, brushing her teeth (without a fight), going to the potty, eating all of her food, and one for just an overall good job at something.

As she does each thing she takes the object from the jar and puts it in a larger jar to be filled up. Once the big jar is filled she gets to go pick out a new toy at Target. I also liked the idea from the original post that to encourage her along the way she gets things at different levels. The first level is an ice cream date with Daddy, the second is a trip to the candy store, and the third is making cupcakes with Mommy.
I was afraid when I started this that she might be a bit too young to understand the concept of this but she has really caught on quickly. She gets excited about putting things in her jar and she's starting to understand consequences if she doesn't do things. For example, she's really bad about her eating habits these days so I tell her if she eats all of her food she gets a pink ball in her jar; when she doesn't finish and doesn't get a ball she gets sad so (sometimes) she'll try to finish her food so that she can fill her jar. Its really working out great & we're having fun with it. I'm really glad that we now spend lots of time highlighting good behavior rather than always focusing on her bad behavior!

 

Putting together the jars was simple & cheap; a bonus to this great idea! I found all of the things I needed for them at Hobby Lobby 50% off, had scrapbooking paper scraps to cover the lids, and used my Cricut to make the images for the top of the jars. I put them all together using my trusty ol' Modpodge. To mark the rewards along the way of filling up the big jar I used stickers to represent ice cream, candy, & a cupcake. So easy & so cute!

 

So back to Friday night, Kate & Jonathan went to Marble Slab for their date. All day Kate was talking about her date & getting excited for it. As soon as she woke up from her nap she asked to get dressed. She requested her "pretty dress" and "pigs" in her hair. I gladly obliged and let her wear an ice cream date appropriate dress & put pigtails in her hair. Jonathan said they had a lot of fun. She was a hit and loving all of the attention she was getting. She got her pink ice cream (also known as strawberry) and even got to add some sprinkles to it! Kate also tested her photo taking skills too; she took the picture of Jonathan above. They had a blast & she came home so excited. I'm glad that they were able to have some time with just the two of them. The picture below is once they were back home telling me about their date & being so sweet with each other. Daddy taking Kate for ice cream definitely made him the favorite for the night!

I'm so proud of the progress my "good girl" is making! Before you know it I'll be posting about our trip to Target for her new toy!