20 Non-Food Rewards for Kids

When you are looking for a quick reward for your children, fast food, ice cream cones and candy are easy solutions... easy, but not healthy. If you are working toward healthier eating habits for your family, or just motivation for them to complete their chores, think beyond cookies. Here are twenty rewards that kids love. These treats add to your relationship rather than their waists.

Imagine the homework and chores being completed without complaint. How? Offer your children what they want most. If you are like most parents, stopping to play one-on-one with your kids rarely happens between loads of laundry, meals and homework. You can create a win-win situation by rewarding your children with your time and focus... the two things they love the most.

Simply knowing that they are working toward a reward motivates them and makes chores or multiplication tables more tolerable. Here are some family favorites.

1. Kid choice: set the timer for 15-30 minutes, and tell your child they get to tell you what to do until the timer goes off. Your child does not want you to answer the phone.
2. Let your child take pictures with your cell phone, and you guess what they are, then switch.
3. Play catch on the steps, with them sitting at the top
4. Painting, coloring, or craft time with Mom
5. Play a game or put together a puzzle together on the kitchen table, or online.
6. A two-player computer or Wii game, child vs. parent
7. A game of hide and seek with mom or dad... either hide yourself, or hide small toys and they find them.
8. Play keep-away with Daddy: floor wrestling
9. Set up an obstacle course and run it with the kids
10. Go on an outing: pick apples; explore by the river. Pick up one of their friends on the way and let them join in the fun.
11. Buy them a new book or ball and enjoy it with them.
12. Swim WITH them.
13. Walk with them while they scooter or ride a little bike.
14. Play Pig! Shoot some baskets together
15. A friend sleep-over, or assist your teen to meet her friends somewhere
16. A scavenger hunt you make for them
17. A pillow fight up on mom's bed
18. Play i-spy together
19. Family bike ride or visit to your playground
20. Read a favorite book or watch a family movie together

If rewards alone are not helping get the homework done, perhaps your children are overwhelmed. Let them know how long the task will take, and what fun awaits them when it is completed. Teach them to break large tasks in to bite-size pieces. Try making a list of small tasks and and let them cross them off as they are completed.

Make sure that you help them through a new task the first time. Don't assume they know how. Fear of doing something incorrectly, or being judged harshly turns chores into arguments. Go easy on them at first with lots of encouragement and little criticism. Even if the results are not stellar the first few attempts, eventually the child will achieve a comfort level with the task and take pride in doing it well.

Kerri Brimmer
Mom of 3 and enterpreneur
Naptime Productions Custom Cards