I’ve been trying different ways to help my kids stay on track with their schoolwork and chores, but I’m struggling to find what works consistently. I know positive reinforcement is supposed to be effective but I’m not sure if I’m doing it right.
Sometimes they respond well to praise or small rewards, but other times they seem to lose interest quickly. How do you make positive reinforcement actually stick? What specific strategies have worked for your kids to keep them motivated without overdoing it?
Any practical tips would be helpful - I want to encourage good behavior without creating kids who only do things for rewards.
We found that making rewards unpredictable worked better than having set rules. Like randomly saying “great job on homework this week, let’s get ice cream” instead of always promising something. Also stopped rewarding every little thing. Now we mostly just notice effort out loud and save actual rewards for bigger accomplishments.
My kid went through phases where sticker charts worked great, then suddenly they’d lose all appeal. What helped was mixing things up - sometimes we’d do a surprise movie night after a good week, other times just verbal recognition worked better.
I noticed timing matters too. Catching them doing something right in the moment seems more effective than waiting until later. We also started letting my child pick their own small reward from a list we made together, which gave them more ownership in the process.