How to Reward Kids

Get Your Kids Back to School on the Right Foot

by Presenta Plaque | on Sep 02, 2014 | No Comments

School is back in session and every parent wants to make sure their kids begin and stay on the right track. Often, it can be difficult to keep kids interested in school. No parent wants to receive that dreaded phone call from a teacher or principal letting them know their child is under-performing. But with a little positive reinforcement at home and some support from teachers, you and your son or daughter will be ready to begin a great year.

Meet their teacher

Most teachers are excited to have parents who are just as involved and concerned with their students’ education as they are. Get to know your child’s teacher. If there is an open house or meet the teacher night you can attend, by all means. It is great to put a face to the person who spends as much time with your child as you. It is also important to establish a relationship so you are comfortable with contacting them for any concerns later in the year.

Ask about their day

Many parents tend to get caught up with their own everyday tasks and often forget to ask kids about their own day. Sometimes asking is more than enough for students. This is the perfect opportunity to gauge any frustrations or issues your student might be going through. It will be much easier later in the year to determine if your student is on a good track if you make it a habit of asking them how things are going.

Give them incentives

This is a part of rewarding that often becomes blurry for parents. It can be difficult to distinguish when you are bribing and when you are giving proper incentives. The best way to remember this is to think of positives and negatives. Incentives should be a reward to continue good behavior. An incentive should serve as more of a motivation rather than a method of persuasion such as a bribe would serve.

Reward them

Even the simplest of rewards can mean a lot to a student who’s worked hard all year. While verbal praise can be of great motivation through busy and stressful times at school, a reward such as a certificate or a plaque can be the perfect way to give them something so show for it at the end of the year.

Give your hardworking student a plaque to remind them all their hard work will pay off soon! Order a plaque for your children today!

Motivate and Reward Your Kids to clean

by Presenta Plaque | on Jul 31, 2014 | No Comments

Getting your kids to clean can often be quite a task in itself. These days it’s difficult to redirect your kids’ attention from the computer, their cell phones and video games back to their duties. With technology all around them for school, entertainment and social communication, it’s easy for them to forget that part of their duties include keeping things tidy around the home. While it may be easy to fall into the temptation of bribery, there are other more effective methods and reward systems you can use to get your kids away from the screens and back to your side.

Tip #1: Reward random acts of cleanliness

The best way to get kids and adolescents excited (or at least willing) to cooperate with you to do chores, is to acknowledge their efforts when they think no one is looking. While their random acts might be few and far between, it’s important for them to know that you see their contributions.

Tip #2: Printable Certificates

Kids love being rewarded. While they may love candy and toys, there’s something about a certificate that gives many children a sense of accomplishment and importance. Printable certificates are an excellent and extremely affordable (or free) method of motivating your kids to do their part and reward them when they do it well. Personalize these for the tasks they do best and let them know you appreciate their effort.

Tip #3: Give Coupons

This might be something that works better for kids, but only you can decide if it would be beneficial to your kids or not. Decide what chores need to be done and how much you think each is worth. Reward your kids with a coupon for TV time or their favorite dinner or snack once they’ve completed their chores. Another way to use this reward system is to give them coupons with pre-written chores. Once they accumulate a certain amount or fill up a page of a “coupon book” they can redeem them for a reward of some sort.

Tip #4: Get a Dry Erase Board to Help Keep Track

A dry erase board could be very helpful in terms of keeping everyone’s chores and everything that needs to be done organized. You can create a chart with names and tasks and let everyone decide who will do what. If you fear this may turn into a free-for-all, perhaps it’s best to assign tasks to everyone; you can later discuss and negotiate if there needs to be any changes. If all the tasks on the board are completed early or on time, you can then decide if you deem this worthy of a reward or not.

Tip #5: Allow Them to Trade Every Once in a While

More than likely your kids are going to run in to some tasks they probably don’t want to complete, whether it’s because they did it last week or because it’s just not their favorite. While cleaning isn’t usually something anyone enjoys, kids should have some freedom to choose the lesser of evils, unless you don’t think they can handle it.

Tip #6: Have Fun

Cleaning shouldn’t feel like slave labor. Sometimes it can be fun. Play some music and make a family event of it. If everyone is doing their part, things should get done much more quickly. Once everything is done and all is clean once again, take this time to enjoy your newly cleaned home and enjoy some downtime with the family.

Classroom Reward Systems

by Presenta Plaque | on Jul 24, 2014 | No Comments

When it comes to keeping the little ones entertained and motivated in the classroom it’s all about changing things up. Kids, as we know, get bored easily at times and sometimes getting them to stay interested in classroom material can be challenging. Many teachers use reward systems in the classroom to keep kids excited to contribute and eager to learn. There are many different systems that have been used by teachers, both original and passed down. It all depends on the dynamic of the classroom and the age of students you are trying to engage.

Kindergarten-First Grade: At this age it’s fairly easy to keep kids motivated. School is a new environment for kids and the new people and new rules are usually enough to keep them on their toes. One of the key things kids should be getting comfortable with at this age is participation:

Make a chart with everyone’s names on it. Have them tally the amount of times they’ve contributed in class and reward the five kids (or whatever number you think is fair) who’ve participated the most at the end of the week. Remember to watch out for the repeat kids. You want to encourage the quiet ones too!

Second Grade-Fourth Grade: Improvement is always important, but right around this age, kids might get comfortable with school. Often the novelty of a new environment and new friends may no longer be enough to keep them eager to continue to improve. This is a good time to remind them their improvement is still being monitored:

Record the improvement of kids’ test scores. Let them know you’re monitoring this and encourage them to raise their test scores. At the end of the year, buy plaques for the most improved kids. They’ll love the special recognition and be motivated to continue getting better.

Fifth Grade-Eighth Grade: Right around this age, kids are beginning to value social relationships more and more. They may value hanging out with their friends more than they would recognition or treats. This is the perfect time to incorporate social rewards to encourage them keep up the good work.

Decide what your classroom needs to improve on, whether that’s test scores, chattiness, overall behavior or attendance. Every Friday, select one student with the best performance and allow them to sit next to a friend for the day.

High School Age: This is the time when kids want to be rewarded with things they don’t have to do. Whereas in earlier years, you could reward them with candy and stickers for the things they did do, now is the time to allow them to skip some of the more unpleasant things such as homework and dreaded assignments.

Make coupons for the kids who consistently turn in assignments. Reward them at random with a “free assignment” pass and let them skip it for that day.

As kids get older, they begin to have different motivations. Make sure to really take a look at your class and think about what particular rewards would motivate them. Remember, every classroom is different!