Yes, Mommy (Yes, Daddy) Jar

Many times, in order to get our kiddos to do something (like chores, pick up toys, come to the table for dinner, etc.) we end up asking them over and OVER. Ugh, it gets so incredibly frustrating. Especially Grant, he kinda has a one track mind so if you ask him to do something, he may head off to do it, but if he stops because he saw a toy or needs to tell you something, then he won't to it because he forgot what it was you asked him to do in the first place. So, while intentions may be good, we still felt like broken records.
I remembered a neat thing my sister Kati does with her kids. It is called the "I'd Love To" jar. She has a large glass bowl where every time her kids say "I'd love to" when she asks them to do something, they put some type of small ball/seasonal trinket (at Christmas time it was ornament balls) in the bowl. When it is full they get a special reward.
Personally, I LOVE hearing my kiddos say "Yes, Mommy" or "OKAY Mommy!" So we made a "Yes, Mommy" jar (also called a "Yes, Daddy" Jar). Every time they do something the FIRST time either Mark or I asks them and say "Yes Mommy!", they get to put a pom pom in the jar. When we have the jar filled up we get to have a special popcorn party night or something like what we did tonight. It was our first time filling up the jar and so after our FHE we headed down to Hernando and went to a ice cream parlor called Velvet Cream. Ooh, we got a banana split, SO good! We don't often go out to eating places so it was a pretty big deal for the kiddos.
We have been doing this for a couple weeks now and what an improvement! I am a much happier Mommy now-a-days and the kids are happier because of it.
I put "Yes, Mommy" on one side and "Yes, Daddy" on the other side of the jar in vinyl, just to make it even more exciting. Michele likes to flip it back and forth depending on who asked her to do something.

Here it sits on our mantle for them to see and check out how close they are to filling it up. 

 We still have our chore chart, which I have tweaked a bit to make it more appealing to the kids. So they now get individual rewards from their own chore charts and we get a family reward from obeying Mommy and Daddy. How nice that Michele and Grant are learning routines, expectations, rewards, and consequences.