Yes Ma'ma, No Ma'ma

I have had a hard time teaching my children to say Yes Ma'ma, No Ma'ma, Yes Sir, No Sir. I have corrected them and corrected them and they still do not seem to get it. I was really getting tired of correcting them and not seeing them get it.

Then one day I was reading one of my favorite blogs, http://www.smockityfrocks.com/. She had a post about using a jar of marbles to give your kids an incentive to do things. I pulled out a jar and a bag of marbles and we started.

Every time they said Yes Ma'ma, No Ma'ma, Yes Sir, No Sir they got to put a marble in the jar. When the jar was full they got to go to Marble Slab for Ice Cream. They filled that jar up pretty quick.

So, the second time around, I made it harder. This time I could take marbles out. I told them if they talked ugly to each other, if they did not obey all the way, right away, or any other thing that I thought was ugly, they would lose a marble. It took them longer to fill it up this time, but it sure is a good motivator.

Yesterday they filled it up and we let them choose their treat. They choose Snow Cones. So last night we loaded up in the car for a trip to the Snow Cone stand. They really enjoyed their snow cones. I just wish I had taken a picture of them with the snow cone juice all over their faces.

This morning I emptied the jar to start over and they already have 4 marbles.