Family Badges: Postive Reinforcement Your Children Will Love

I have often stopped to listen to myself as I've talked with my children and wondered, "Do they ever get discouraged at how often I say 'no' to them?"  I understand how important it is to teach them how not to act, talk, and respond, but I've also come to realize that approving an action, word, or response when it is the right one can be just as effective, if not more so.  As Christians, my husband and I strive to teach our children what God has asked us to teach them according to His Word - and this is hard work!  Only by God's grace can our children absorb these truths and practice them someday with a heart motivated out of love and not fear or obligation.  But what about all of those other character traits that they need to learn? (ie. finishing a job, learning a new skill, cleaning up after oneself, working as a team, or teaching a younger sibling/friend a new skill)  These are pretty valuable character traits, and I'm embarrassed to say that I was at the grand age of 18 before I learned some of these (when I entered my first college dormitory!).

As I worked through these concepts in my mind, I came across an article that Family Fun magazine (Disney) wrote on a program they've been running called "Badges of Fun."  Some of you may have seen their promotion of this program last summer and for those of you who have not, you can view it here.  It is a tool they developed to help families spend more time together creating, learning, and growing together.  I loved the concept and decided to "tailor make" our badges to fit our family's values, while keeping their ages in mind.  My kids were 1, 3, and 5 last summer, and even though they were young, they enjoyed earning the badges that my husband and I had come up with to fit our little family.  And what, you might be wondering, was the purpose of our Family Badges?  Well, we wanted to teach our children character traits and skills they can perform for the rest of their lives while encouraging them to choose the right way to behave (even though we knew these things weren't ultimately going to change their hearts).  Needless to say, it kept all of us busy throughout the summer.

This is how we presented the Family Badges to the kids.  For the first time the children participated in one of our badge categories, they earned the official badge.  Each time they performed another "badge behavior," we added a little ribbon to the original badge, allowing them to continue earning rewards.  The following are the badge categories we used:

• Music Badge - they had to learn a new song
• Cleaning Badge - they had to help with a "big person" chore
• Exploring Badge - they had to discover something they didn't know, like a new bug or fact about our world
• Helping Badge - they had to DO something for someone without being asked
• Art Badge - create something "artistic"
• Building Badge
• Saving Money Badge
• Cooking Badge
• Listening Badge
• Crafting Badge

There are so many categories that we didn't cover, so maybe this coming summer we'll use a new set of badges.  Or if we can't make it until next summer, we may do a winter version with indoor activities.

My husband and I would periodically have "award ceremonies" and present the kids with the badges or ribbons they had earned over the weeks prior to that ceremony.  We loved watching the kids get excited about earning a new badge, doing something they had not yet tried, but most of all watching their character begin to develop.  It was such a fun summer activity for all of us, and I think we all enjoyed being able to say, "YES! Let's go do something new today!"