A Dose of Competition

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Today was a work day for the kids because they have not had to do any of their regular work in the last week. Unfortunately (but unsurprisingly) we found that they seemed to have misplaced their ability to work. They spent 3 hours on a room that should have been done in 30 minutes. Savannah and Alyssa finally perked up and started working like they’re capable when I challenged them to a race. The race was to see if they could finish the family room they had been working on for nearly 3 hours before I could empty the sink and load the dishwasher.

It really should have been no competition but I managed to nearly finish by the time they passed their quality check. The really nice thing was that I didn’t have to remind them to get back to work. Even when they started dawdling a bit they kept working because I didn’t tell them at the beginning that there was basically no way I could win.

Even after the race was over they kept working on the other tasks that still had to be done. It’s nice to find some effective motivation – I hope I can use that technique in the future.