After having our second baby last month, our oldest discovered we were a bit more lenient with television than normal. With the holidays, a new baby and just getting the hang of life with two littles, we spent more time than normal cozied up with Doc McStuffins. While I do like that show, we quickly discovered that our oldest was growing more interested in watching TV than doing anything else (minus holding her new sister). I chatted with my husband about the ticket economy I had in my classroom and about implementing that with our daughter. After contemplating, we decided on the concept of Brain Bucks.
Brain Bucks are a fantastic tool to help your child develop positive associations with completing tasks that grow their knowledge base. For example, our oldest daughter loves geography. I have made up a number of songs and she sings them everywhere… and loudly. She recently received a large magnetic map of the states, for practicing her states and correctly placing them on the map, she earns a Brain Buck. She also gets multiples if the task is particularly difficult. So when she began the task of assembling her map, she may have earned two brain bucks, simply due to the amount of time and effort it would take, but now she’s able to do it much faster and may need to complete another task or complete her map twice to earn a single Brain Buck.
Brain Bucks can be utilized for any activity that exercises your brain, tasks that are challenging or are beneficial to learning a separate task. For example, it’d be really fantastic if she could sit and write the alphabet, but that task will appear to be too daunting, so instead we may work with her and draw images and challenge her to color them in a certain way (inside the lines, out of the lines, with particular colors). This task still encourages her to get in a lot of writing practice, but in a way that she enjoys.
Brain Bucks can be used just like normal currency. If you save them, you can buy more. If you spend them right away, you are stuck with only what is immediately available. Saving is a pretty tricky concept for preschool aged children, but it is one that they can learn if you make the prizes assessable. Let’s say your child enjoys going to the park. Have “park trip” cost one or two Brain Bucks. The zoo may cost three or four. 20 minutes of iPad time or a tv show may be one Buck or it may be more. Consider what is a large motivator for your child and build your marketplace from there.
A Note About Chores: Some folks like to use a home currency to encourage their children to help out within their house. In my own home, I am focused on having my daughters see completing chores not as something that they should be rewarded for, but as something that they should understand needs to be done for the good of the home. We talk a lot about certain characteristics and “teamwork” is one of the phrases that comes up frequently in our home. Our oldest daughter has a good understanding that for us to play games or have room to set up her Kipp Bar and balance beam, we need to work as a team to make sure that the floor is clean or if she would like to help in the kitchen, we need to work as a team to clear the counters and put dishes away.