Q&A Wednesday - Finding Your Kids' Currency

Carrie asked, "What activities do you have your kids use tickets for (in the Accountable kids system)? I need some ideas!!"



I've mentioned my love for Accountable Kids, but it's been a while. AK was recommended to me when Ryan was three and a half. To summarize, it's an system that gets kids to be accountable for doing their own "chores" (for example, getting dressed, brushing teeth and eating breakfast were Ryan's morning chores in the early years) and being rewarded for their chores with tickets. The tickets mean nothing unless they are given value, so the point is to have the child "pay" you for activities with tickets.

When the child doesn't follow an instruction, talks back, fights with their sibling, has a tantrum or anything else that would cause you to get frustrated, you simply ask them for a ticket. No yelling, no drama. Things got really quiet in our house when I started taking away tickets instead of doing time out or taking away other privileges.

The ticketed activities for our family are basically anything that I want to limit or that I need to monitor: watching tv, playing the Wii, playing with neighbor kids, having a piece of gum, riding bikes in the front yard, having a sleepover in each other's rooms, playing online pre-school games on the computer, things like that. Things that I want to encourage them to do are NOT ticketed activities: playing in the backyard, doing puzzles, doing crafts, I can't think of anything in the house that's a ticketed activity.

I also don't make the kids give me a ticket to have dessert. I'm a little funny about tying rewards to food.

The Accountable Kids kit comes with dozens of chore cards and the parents choose what's appropriate for the child. Cards include things like brushing teeth, cleaning up toys, doing homework, vacuuming, feeding pets and mowing the lawn. This system works well for toddlers up through high schoolers. No need to nag, just remind them to turn over their chore cards.

Now that the kids are getting older, I'm expanding their chores. I just added a Bible ticket to their morning chores so they can remind me to do their Bible lesson. I also added the recycling ticket to Ryan's afternoon chores; it's something he often does anyway. The recycle bin gets full daily and it's a perfectly age-appropriate chore for Ryan.

If you're interested in buying the AK kit and you have a website, I recently read on their newsletter that you can get a 25% discount if you write a review of the system on your blog. (more info here)