Family Friday: Family Awards

As a way of both recognizing and encouraging certain behaviors, we have begun to implement "Family Award Night" once a month in our home. The awards are nothing fancy, pretty much just a plaque or appropriate framed poster related to what the award is for, and they are re-given month to month. We will also add in a small gift (dollar store item) the recipient gets to keep afterwards as well. For our family, we currently have a friendship reward, a good citizen reward, and a courage reward. On the awards night, nominations are made by any family member for each category. Stories are shared of other family members showing true friendship, good citizenship, and/or moments of courageous activity. If there is more than 1 nominee in a category, we will vote as a family to who gets the award. The "winner" then gets to display the award where they choose until the next month. We only recently began this award "program" so we are still working out the kinks, but it seems to be working so far. The kids are always looking for opportunities to be more friendly, help others, and be courageous. They are also noting when they see one of the other family members doing one of these things. They seem to appreciate each other more and us too. You can use any award category you choose and they can change as you see fit. I anticipate we will change ours quarterly, but we will see. Have any of you ever done something like this, if so please share your story.