Bribery? You Bet Your sweet Bippy!

It is official. 

We have joined you. 

The many.  The desperate. 

Yup.  We gave in.

Why?

Ah! Now that is a good question.

We did it because we felt we had no choice.

Oh! You want to know what we did!?  That's easy.

We have decided to bribe Erin.  She HATES to read.  (And if you know me, you know that we don't encourage the use of the word "hate.")  At her age, she should be reading with good comprehension & fluidity (Is that even a word?).  Erin will do anything to avoid reading.  She has really improved since last year, but it is still a major struggle to get her to read. 

After emailing with her teacher today, I found out that Erin didn't do as well as we had hoped on some of her standardized testing.  Mrs. W wants Erin to read everyday.  For fun.  Ha! That is just so darn funny!  Mrs. W knows Erin really well so I'm sure she felt she had to put that in writing even knowing that Erin hates reading.

Consequences?  They mean nothing to her because she refuses to read.  David, my oh so wise, guy came up with a plan.  Instead of taking away privileges, we are now going to bribe Erin.  With her allowance.

We started giving Erin an allowance each week.  It wasn't tied to anything - no chores, nothing.  Now we're bribing her.  She gets $1 a day.  As long as she reads for at least a half hour.  Smart kid asked what she would get if she read for a longer period of time.  I told her she would get the satisfaction of knowing she'd found a book that she enjoyed.  (Yes.  She rolled her eyes.  And, no, I didn't get upset.)

And what happens when she doesn't read? 

No allowance.

That simple.