Sometimes bribery is a good thing...

Only 2 months ago the nightly routine in our house with Logan consisted of screaming, crying and putting up an absolute fit over his reading and guitar work. Logan has always struggled with reading and last year participated in a before school reading group to get up to average for his age. In a moment of desperation, we bribed him with a reward program that if he read for five out of seven days a week; and played his guitar for five out of seven days we would get him a iPAD after 6 weeks. Little secret - we were going to get him one anyway :-)  IT WORKED INSTANTLY! Immediately he started finding spare time in everyday to meet his goals and 2 weeks ago he got his iPAD - now loaded with a bunch of fun apps (games); as well as apps on reading and math.
Now his reward program requires him to read and play guitar to use the iPAD - and it is still working! Last month he read almost 600 minutes! The school goal is 300 for "meets expectations" and 400 for "exceeds expectations." Today he woke up and read an entire book in just over an hour! He is turning into a reading machine and wants to go to the library to get the next book in various series. It is only November 2 and he has already read 110 minutes. And the best thing - no crying, tantrums, etc. Also need to mention his fall state-wide test scores for reading now came in just over average....progress!

At first I felt like we were being bad parents with bribery...but then a good friend had an excellent point: "adults work for bonuses and stock options at work - why shouldn't kids have incentives as well!" AMEN!