i used to love halloween as a kid – going around to neighbors houses and getting a ton of candy! we used to get whole pillowcases full! what i didn’t like was the inevitable tummy ache a few days later after eating all of my candy in one shot. it happened year after year, and yet i kept doing it! ugh.
my kids are pretty good about not eating too much candy and sweets. they like their fruits and vegetables and good things like that. but, boy, when they got home after trick-or-treating…it was all they wanted! candy! candy! more candy! while i was more than happy to let them have several right after trick-or treating (it was halloween, after all!), i’ve been trying to keep them from going on an all out candy binge. so we took a basket (walmart for under $6), added a little sign and this is now their treat basket for when they do good things and make good choices. sometimes it’s nice to get a reward for making your bed, cleaning up your toys, or doing your homework.
it’s been working really well so far! sometimes they ask what they can to do get a treat, and other times i look for the good things they are doing all on their own and point it out to them…and then give them a treat!
and since my boys like things that “go!”, i made a sign with a road on it and attached a car sticker. if you’d like the label with the road on it, you can download it here. but you don’t have to use a “label” per se – my sister also uses a reward basket for her kids, but hers is not a wire basket. instead it’s a solid metal basket and she used vinyl letters for her label – put the words right on the basket. you could also use vinyl letters on the side of a jar with a lid. or try stickers and let your kids decorate their own jar!
and it’s not just for halloween candy. you can incorporate other things like dollar-store toys, notepads, crayons, stickers, pencils, etc. so if you have any of these things, or if you happen to have any halloween candy left, this could be a fun way for you to reward your children for all the great things they do!
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