Not a link, but I wanted to share anyway...

On the Old-Fashioned Education e-list, we share lots of ideas. =c) Recently, there was a thread discussing discipline. This particular e-mail caught my attention. I liked the idea enough that I'm implementing it in my own home, and sharing it here with the permission of the author! Thank you again for sharing Jenni!

Jenni's e-mail read:

I have been blessed with almost freakishly well-behaved children, but I will tell you what worked for us when we first started homeschooling years ago.

I had a big empty glass jar that sat on the counter. It would start out with 10 marbles. Every time either of the kids did something particularly good - like a chore w/o being asked or really well on an assignment, I would put another marble in the jar. If they misbehaved in any way, a marble - and on rare occasion 2 marbles - would come out of the jar. Once the jar was completely full of marbles, they got a special treat, like a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese. After the treat - the jar went back to 10 marbles and we would start again.

We haven't needed/used this in a few years now, but at the time it worked well. They got really concerned about losing their marbles. :) Actually, sometimes the threat of losing their marbles alone worked because the expression often made them giggle and would get them out of their bad mood. We even had a card taped to the jar that said, "I don't want to lose my marbles!"

~Jenni