Glass Marble Method

Glass Marble Method

-(Communication, Encourage Children, Nature Game)-

This is my personal experience using Glass Marble Method, to deal with children. Glass Marble Method is a reward and consequence technique that I learned from "Nanny 911" show. I modified some of this method to make it more interesting. Just enjoy your own modified method and make sure that it works. Play with peanut, bean, hazelnut rather than use marble, so you can explain more about environment.

The basic idea of this method is by giving one marble after your children doing something right, not giving any marble if the situation is neutral, and take one marble if your children doing something wrong.

I have two transparent jar. One is bigger than the other one. I use the small one to collect marbles for one month, and then transfer it into the big one once a month (I assume that the big jar is enough to collect all marbles for 6-12 months).

I put all the jar in a place where they can see it, but having difficulty to touch it. Rule number 2: you must make this marbles is "sacred". It means that you should have discussion with your children how to treat this jar and marbles with respect.

What really happened in real situation when we start to do this activity?
- First, she start to complain about the number of the marble she think she deserved when she do "right" things, and said that she don't want to play this game if she only get one marble.
- After a conversation, she said "allright then..." where we must put this jar?
- Day one-three, I put a marble everyday, to encourage her to do right thing, and yes-she helped a friend, ask for apologize to her mom (cos she said something bad before)...
-Day four, no marble... cos she get angry in the night, although s he helped a friend in the school before.
- Day five, no marble... cos she play with pen in my T Shirt, talking bad with her mom. I think she start to wonder... why I don't get any marble this day. She start to be more careful...
-...and life goes on ^_^ , que sera sera...

Hints:
- Don't stick to much with the rule. You also should know your time when you put one extra marble, or to take two marble at once.
- Use silver, white marble; or replace normal size marble with a bigger one. Just like my first hint, you should know the time.
- Discuss with kids, in the night-why you put or take marble(s). It's an important stage that you should do in this activity. Sometimes you get new informations from your kids, and you will understand better about their behaviour.
- Discuss with your partner, about this game. (S)he can give you another perspective how to deal with your boy/girl.
-  IMPORTANT: don't threat - like say : "I will take your marbles if you don't say you're sorry!" Just be calm and take the marble in the night. You should explain to your kid nicely without shouting :)

Picture taken from http://mypassporttostyle.blogspot.com