Accountable Kids Program

Although this is not related to milk allergies, it IS related to good parenting and organizing your household, which I believe can help all of us:)  Juggling six children in and of itself can be a chore, but trying to juggle schoolwork, cleaning, laundry, dishes, and time with each child is completely overwhelming at times, not to mention adding food allergies into the mix.  Thankfully, I stumbled across the Accountable Kids website.   I was intrigued by the system and decided that I wanted to try it for myself.  So far, we are LOVING this system and give it 5 stars!!!  It completely takes the pressure off of me, and allows my children to be accountable for their own actions and behaviors as well as organizes their chores into bite-size pieces.

Here is a brief overview of the program:

• Every day my children come down and do their "morning chores" which include things like making their bed, combing their hair, and brushing their teeth.  Once completed, I reward them with a ticket.  Above our chore charts, we have a list of ticketed activities (with the number of tickets needed per activity), which include things like playing video games, riding their bikes, and watching a movie/tv.  Other activities like reading a book or playing with toys are free.  My kids can choose to save their tickets for later in the day (when a bigger activity is desired) or use them as soon as they're done with their morning chores.  This pattern continues for day chores and evening chores.
• If my children are fighting, hitting, or being disrespectful, I simply take away a ticket rather than getting angry at them.  (I love this aspect.)  If they don't have any tickets left, then they have to do an extra chore before they can have any privileges.  It has worked really well the last two weeks.  
• At the end of each day, if my children have done all of their morning, day, and evening chores, then I reward them with a sticker on the date card.  Once they fill up this card, then they can schedule a mommy or daddy date.  My kids are really excited to fill up their cards and plan their special date.  Not only does this motivate them, but it also encourages me to spend one on one time with each child, which is sometimes hard to do.

• In addition to regular tickets and chores, there are also special cards.  One of them is the "best behavior" card.  This is to be rewarded intermittently as I notice my kids being especially nice or well behaved.  One of my children has really done well with this, and I am amazed at how amazing he really is.  It's nice to have a way to show my gratitude towards my children and to actually notice not just the bad, but the good as well.  I let my kids use their best behavior card either as a ticket or they can save it for a special drawing or the like (we haven't done this yet as most of my kids have used them for a ticket).
• Another special card is the "privilege pass."  We haven't introduced this one yet, but I want to use it to help my son stop biting his nails.  It is to be used to encourage your children to overcome something that is difficult for them to overcome.  If they do, then a very special privilege can be rewarded.  My kids want it to be something like going to the pool or to a movie in the theater.  
• In addition to these cards, this system also introduces money chores, which my kids LOVE.  These are optional chores, and they help me run the household more smoothly.  If the kids choose not to do them, then I do them myself.  My kids earn a "bonus bucks" card for each money chore they do.  They can use them as a ticket for a ticketed activity, or they can trade them in for cash at the end of the week.  
• One thing that we have loved is that this system is that it is totally customizable!  I decided to hand write specific chores directly on the cards to differentiate between chores.  That way my children have no question as to what is expected.

Overall we are very pleased with this system!!!  If you want to find out more, you can visit www.accountablekids.com