Please tell me I’m not the only one silently screaming, “Will the school year ever end?!”

The last quarter of the school year always seems to drag.  We are far enough in that materials seem boring, but not far enough to be done.  The required knowledge is always building, and the effort needed to tackle the work constantly increases.

High effort, boring delivery – blah!  Who wants to learn like that? Maintaing motivation seems almost impossible.

This year the complaining, foot-dragging, and sighs (yes, some of them were from me) got so bad that I knew I had to change something.  There was no way we could complete another 8 weeks of drudgery.

My kids are too big for a simple “finish your work and I’ll give you a cookie” bribe, yet all of us love instant gratification.  We also are big believers in working toward, a long term goal.  So, I decided to do both.

I filled a jar with chocolate & yogurt covered raisins and told the kids that for each day they finished their work without complaining they could eat a raisin. (I know that doesn’t seem like much of a treat, but it doesn’t take much to keep us motivated)

THEN

I also told them that they had a mystery to solve.  Hidden in the jar was a bigger reward that they could have when the jar was empty.

It worked!

Attitudes improved.  The kids were thrilled to get their raisin each day, and tried to strategically choose which one to take so that they could reveal the big gift.

Once we revealed the gift cards, the motivation again increased, because they now had something new to be excited about.  As the weeks rolled on and the jar got closer to empty, they worked harder and harder (rather than slower and slower as we usually do at the end of the school year) to get their reward.

Score one for Mom!  Experiencing the final two months of school without (too many) complaints has been delightful.  Totally worth the expense!