Footloose - Motivating Kids With Rewards

When I was in middle school in the late 1980's/ very early 1990's name brand clothing was EVERYTHING, particularly at my suburban Etobicoke school.  My parents didn't subscribe to the same brand of cool as my classmates and most of my clothes were hand-me-downs from my preppy older sister.  My parents priorities were getting us fed and saving for post secondary education for three kids, so they'd never drop the same amount of coin on a Club Monaco sweatshirt, or whatever else was the flavour of the week, especially since I was still growing.

One day I came home to a pair of brand new women's Nike Air runners in the front hallway of our house.  They were my mom's, but just the same I was smitten, we were practically the same shoe size after-all.  After hours of me playing dress-up with my mom's shoes like I was five instead of 13 and begging for her to let me wear them to school, just once, my parents cut me a deal.

I've always been the least athletic of my siblings and my dad was always looking for a way to inspire me to find something active to fall in love with.  My parents told me that if I jogged, an intended purpose of running shoes, at least 25 times over the next two months the shoes would be mine.  I was motivated and I ran, a lot, because I wanted those shoes!

In just over six weeks, I "earned" the shoes.  I went for maybe three other jogs that year, all in my new kicks, and most of them related to my dad hounding me to go for a run and practically begging me to "Just Do It".  As an adult I get how frustrating this must have been for my parents, and I understand why they did it.  Falling in love with a sport can lead to a life-long healthy habit.

The best kid response to my new running habit

I didn't run again, aside from gym class, for years.  I took up running "for reals" in my first year of university as a measure to combat the freshman fifteen and then again in my mid-twenties when I ran my first 10KM (a Nike Sponsored run - I guess they still inspired me, over a decade later).  I picked up running again in January this year for the first time since before I was pregnant, and I've fallen back in love with it, only this time Nike isn't involved.

On the parenting front we've had trouble motivating Jack to work on his writing.  He'll barely sit through the Occupational Therapist prescribed five to ten minutes a day and a lot of the time he's just going through the motions to get us off his back.

Last week I came across a sold out Lego Toy he wanted and I bought it for him, but he could have it under one condition - he dedicate some real concerted effort on his writing and reading every single day for a week.  This toy, sits on top of a shelf in our living room and Jack can look at it and hold it, in all of its packaged glory, for one minute each day after he successfully completes his reading and writing assignments. His writing has improved dramatically, and it's only been a week.  It doesn't hurt that we write out words that are meaningful and important to him like Captain Underpants, Batman, C3PO, and Hulk, On Friday he'll have earned his toy and I can't help but think back to those running shoes.

I have no clue what next week will bring, and if or when I'll buy another goal toy to "dangle the carrot" right away to keep the progress going or not.  Maybe I'll tell Jack that he and I both need to start saving our money, something tells me I owe my mom a pair of retro Nike Airs.

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Hands - Activities To Boost Fine Motor Skills

When we found out that Jack would need some extra work on building up his fine motor skills we weren't really that surprised.  If you look at both Chris and my report cards from when we were in kindergarten and grade one neither of us were fine motor rock stars and each had comments about our needs for improvements from teachers until around grade two.

As we work with an Occupational Therapist to help Jack with building his hand strength and practicing pre-printing skills we've found a number of fun games, chores, and activities to try that both kids love. These activities help strengthen the hands, build confidence, and improve coordination all around.  The best part is the kids will often ask for some of these items, so to them it doesn't seem like work.

22 Activities to Increase Fine Motor Skills

1. Making paper snowflakes (scissors work).
2. Painting pictures on old boxes, toilet paper and paper towel rolls.
3. Hiding beads in a big ball of plasticine and having your kids pull out the beads using their hands to "win".
4. Building a snowman using pompoms, glue, pipe cleaners and googly eyes.
5. Party in a Bowl - Picking up paper "party guests" from off the floor using only clothes pegs to move them and placing them into the bowl (party).
6. Helping with the windows by spraying the window cleaner and scrubbing (they are super enthusiastic about this chore).
7. Sticker books where you place stickers to dress characters or anything where stickers should be placed in specific areas.
8. Making beaded bracelets.
   
   

   

   Adding the finishing touches on the paper rocket

9. Colouring just about everything (colouring and printing while laying on your belly across the floor increases arm support).
10. Sorting small objects like candy by colour for baking.
    
    

    

    Happy little elf ornaments

11. Picking up marbles using a spoon and moving them into a ball.
12. Using eye droppers to add steps to "experiments" (think food colouring, oil, and other things for easy kitchen science)
13. Playing with the play dough fun factory. (Both kids are particularly partial to the scented molding play dough they received for Christmas)
14. Bathtub squirt toys to shoot water at a target
15. Popping bubbles (another one for bath time in the winter months) with index finger to help develop hand-eye coordination.
16. Using sidewalk chalk
17. Making sand castles (you can also make your own indoor version of "cloud dough").
18. Making a doll clothes line and using clothes pins to hang up all of dolly's clothes.
19. Putting together nuts and bolts (can be a timed context for added fun).
20. Gluing beans, dried pasta, and seeds to create pictures.
21. Painting figurines or ornaments.
22. Decorating cookies or building gingerbread men & houses.

Dollar Store Gingerbread House

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