Golden Apple Rewards

When Sierra was in daycare her support worker started using a golden apple reward system with her when she was having a rough time at nap time. Her idea was that since Sierra is very hands on that having a physical reward she could touch and place into something would be more tangible for her then a sticker on a reward chart which has never worked with Sierra. She tried the golden apple idea and it worked wonders!

Now that Sierra is in school there is no nap time and no support worker. There are however many transitions which she has a hard time coping with. We are very thankful that Sierra gets along with her teacher really well but they are having a hard time with the lunch monitor, the music teacher and librarian.

They have tried many different reward systems in the classroom and nothing is working. So last week after a major blow up at school I thought we should try the golden apple approach again.

We couldn't find any golden coloured apples over the weekend so we just got regular red apple ornaments from the dollar store and Sierra painted them with gold metallic acrylic paint.

We took them to school yesterday in a recycled jar from peaches which will hold the golden apples she receives and a muslin bag for storage of the apples waiting to be awarded.

I am happy to say (and hoping not to jinx it) that the first 2 days have been amazing! Sierra gained 4 apples today and 4 yesterday and now needs only 2 more to get a prize. We keep the prize box at home and it is full of little goodies mostly from little bags from thrift stores (things like little petshop animals, jewlery etc). When she gets 10 golden apples in her container she comes home to choose a prize and then starts earning rewards again. We decided that in the beginning Sierra would be awarded golden apples for ANY positive behaviours during her troubled transition times. As she gains confidence with all her apples we will focus more on certain tasks but for now we want her time at school to be positive overall...for her and for the teachers :)

Do you see negative behaviours at home with your children? Or at school? How do you encourage positive behaviour? What rewards system do you find work? I am always looking for ways to focus on the positive and ignore the negative as much as possible and let me tell you...it isn't always easy to do!