So when my son entered the institution, I mean educational system, he experienced the struggle that most boys do- he is extremely wiggly. Classic motivational techniques weren't enough to help him get through the day without a yellow or red (both are bad).
No amount of coaxing was working until...Minecraft. Yes that bane of parents everywhere.
Minecraft became our incentive for my then 6 year old- and it worked!
A new discipline system was born in our home. For every poor day of behavior "a day" is given, which isn't really "a day" but instead, it was a removal of video games privileges. All video games are banned until the "day" is either over, or until he/she works it off.
Soon, the "days" were extended to include all the children's infractions. We also decided that if a child ends up with two or more "days" then any and all screen time is out. No movies, no cartoons, etc. until the "days" are over.
We found quickly that the "days" were being given out liberally so we tried to come up with ways to work off the "days" to make the crime fit the punishment. For example, if you got a "day" for not cleaning up your room, you could remove the "day" by cleaning up the room, but if you chose not to, you could wait (without video games) until the next day. Screaming in the car = unloading the dishwasher.
It's been over a year now, and I'm happy to say it continues to be the best system we have yet to come up with. It applies equally to all the ages between 4 and 11 years old. We have a chart with each name on it and sticky notes that they post on their name according to the number of days the have. This way we remain consistent and they get to have the satisfaction of removing them when the work is done or the time is up.
I feel it gives the kids control over their situation. They start with a privilege. If they misbehave they have a choice whether to work it off, or wait it out.
The default privilege we allot for video games is 30 minutes each. We've also decided to encourage my son to draw, so he has to draw for 30 minutes before playing video games. Yesterday was his first day doing so, and he drew the knights from Castle Crashers. Then he played the game.
Our system is very similar to token behavior modification systems that are heavily backed by research in classrooms and special education. Learn more at this link.
http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Token-economy-system.html You can adjust it to fit your child's needs including building tokens to earn something (5 stickers for a treasure chest toy). The main thing is to pick something you can stick with because if you don't remain consistent, the kids will lose faith in what you are trying to do and all effectiveness will be lost.
