The Happy Jar

In an effort to encourage Cainan to stop "sassing" me, as my Grandma would say, and fighting with his brother all of the time I implemented the use of the Happy and Sad jars.

Whenever Cainan is polite or kind he gets to move a straw from the sad jar to the happy jar. But whenever he is mean the straw travels the other direction. When the happy jar is full he gets to go to McDonald's for a happy meal.

I didn't originate this idea so don't give me too much credit. It is one of Lisa Welchel's Creative Corrections. She suggests using marbles in the jars. I didn't have any marbles so I began my experiment with cotton balls. The problem was that it only takes 15 or so cotton balls to fill the jar. Cainan was very inspired those first couple of days and within 3 days we owed him a trip to McDonald's. That is when I decided I needed something much smaller in diameter to put in the jar...hence the straws.

The newness has worn off but Cainan is still pretty interested in filling up that happy jar. He is all about saying "please" and "may I" and "thank you" now. So much so that I had to stop giving him happy straws for basic politeness. Being the smart little boy that he is, he has developed new and unique ways to get those straws moved. Just yesterday when I told him to go upstairs and put on his pajamas a little early so that he would have time to play with Ryker before bed he said, "Thanks Mommy. You make a great point." One happy straw coming right up.