What makes the perfect reward chart?

I need your advice. I’m helping the online pocket money website Roosterbank create a reward chart. They want to come up with something  that will be both useful for parents and fun for kids, and FREE for everyone, regardless of whether or not they use the Roosterbank site. (They’re nice like that). I have to confess though that I don’t have a great track record when it comes to reward charts. I’ve tried reward charts a few times with Belle, but just haven’t been able to get it right. Our last attempt a few months ago included around eight simple tasks to do every day, really easy things like ‘clean teeth’ and ‘go to bed without having a breakdown’, yet it was abandoned, (like the toothbrush), after only 10 days. The difficulty was deciding how exactly the thing should work. Should she have to get every single item ticked every day to claim her pocket money at the end of the week, or was there scope for error? We tried the first approach initially, but it did not go well. One bedtime tantrum on the first night, and that was it for the week – where was her incentive then to eat all her lunch on the other six days? In the second week we discovered just how short-termist (and cunning) Belle can be. “OK,” we’d say, “time to clean your teeth!” “I don’t want to,” she would say. “But if you don’t clean them, you can’t get the tick on your chart.” “That’s alright,” she’d say, “I don’t want the money. I’m seeing Gran at the weekend and she’ll buy me my Jacqueline Wilson magazine.” What can you say to that? The reward chart had been about handing over responsibility and control, and she’d grasped it firmly. With both…

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5 Best Countries To Travel To For Their Wine

Traveling is one of the best ways to experience the culture of other countries. It’s no surprise that someone who likes to travel is more cultured, has know-how on the different cuisines of the world, and is keener for exciting and new adventures. Traveling By Wine-Tasting If you’re a seasoned globe-trotter or a budding one, one of the best ways to experience the culture of the country you’re visiting is through its wineries. Aside from the usual touristy excursions like food-tasting and shopping, what’s more pleasant than taking a day trip and packing for a fun daytime wine-tasting experience? Visiting wineries can be a rewarding experience as they take intention and time. You may arrange for a day visit, an overnight, or several days of stay at a local winery in your destination country. Some wineries even offer tours, picnics, and wine-tasting. Who knows, one might even learn a valuable thing or two about the country’s history and land upon the visit. Countries To Visit For Their Wineries For your future travels around the globe, here are the best countries to visit for their wine. France France always tops the charts for being the best-tasting and top-producing wine country in the world. The region is known for different grape strains and its sophisticated way of producing wine.  Bordeaux is one of the most well-known destinations for wine-tasting and vineyard visits. Most wine enthusiasts flock to the region at any season of the year because Bordeaux is known for various activities, even in winter. And with the sophisticated way the region produces their wine, a first-timer in a winery visit won’t be remiss in trying out wines in any season. Italy Italy is another top contender when it comes to rich, tasty, and flavorful wines. With its favorable climate for growing…

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How do you get kids to recycle more plastic?

In association with Coca-Cola How do you get kids to recycle more plastic? When they’re young it’s easier to be creative around recycling – you can decorate recycling boxes together, create star charts and set up rewards. You can even make a trip to the recycling centre fun for primary school aged children if you go about it in the right way and have chocolate buttons for the way home. Teenagers though. Teenagers are generally not so easily engaged. When we moved into our new house last summer I actually bought some stickers in the shape of flowers and leaves, plus a house number sticker, thinking Belle would want to use them to decorate the outside bins. Bless me and my determination to cling to the past. Needless to say that our outside bins remain undecorated. Over the next six months we’re taking part in Coke’s Family Plastic Challenge, a new initiative to support the wider sustainability strategy they introduced last year. (You can find out more about the team of bloggers that I’m part of here.) Currently only 58% of plastic bottles in the UK are recycled*, and this is a problem for Coke. It means that there isn’t enough recycled plastic – known as rPET – in the system, which in turn means it’s harder to make bottles containing high levels of recycled plastic. I think a lot of us (me included) don’t really think about the lifecycle of a plastic bottle. We see it as a disposable item, and even if we do recycle we probably don’t think about what happens to it next. (I just imagine recycled plastic getting made into those pens that were popular when I was young that said ‘I was made from a plastic bottle!’) Plastic bottles are not single use though –…

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