About a month before Christmas I came across these behaviour sticker charts at Dollarama. I had actually looked over them on previous trips to the store, but after a week of trying behaviour from both my children I grabbed two out of desperation.
I wasn’t sure if the stickers would have any impact, and was quite shocked over just how upset my 4 and 6 year old got over receiving the dreaded “Sorry Snowman” sticker. After several days of seeming to not respond to our disappointment over their poor behaviour, there were actual tears from both kids when that first snowman sticker went up on the charts. They were also very proud each day when they earned a “Super Star” and it became a bit of a competition to see who could get the longest streak of stars. When Christmas Eve came, they were both excited to tally up their snowmen and stars and leave their final reports out for Santa to review.
As the New Year hit and we have started into Walt Disney World trip planning mode, I brought up the idea to my husband of starting a monthly allowance for the kids that would allow them to save their own spending money. Since the Christmas themed charts worked so well, my husband cleverly suggested that we implement something similar to reward them for good behaviour. In the months leading up to our November trip, we have decided they can earn $1 for each day of good behaviour. This money can then be used for treats and souvenirs during our 10 day trip.
My first thought was to design the chart/calendar, but then I decided it might be easier to head to Dollar Tree and see if they had something ready-made I could make work. I started with two Mickey themed Calendars in my cart, but then I happened across the Finding Dory stickers and knew immediately I had to go back and exchange my Mickey calendars for the Finding Dory versions. Smiling Dory will be the sticker for positive behaviour, and the kids will get a grumpy Hank the Septopus on the days their behaviour is less then ideal.
The original plan was to just mark the “good” days with the sticker, but based off the Christmas calendars I think the kids really liked being able to mark every day with a sticker – whether it be “good” or “bad”. It is a good visual and is an easy way for us to remind them when their behaviour is more Hank-like then Dory-like. My son was just a bit disappointed that I chose Dory and wasn’t able to find him Star Wars versions where he could mark Luke Skywalker on the light side for his good days and a use a Darth Vader dark side sticker on bad days.
I have also designed these “Sea of Savings” charts to do monthly tallies and am looking forward to seeing how many Dory’s the kids rack up. This will teach them some responsibility about earning and managing their own money, and will help us to not worry about budgeting for as much spending money come trip time.
Now to come up with something cute for them to keep the actual money in for their first payout at the end of the month!
How do you get your kids involved in saving for your trips? I’d love to hear in the comments.
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