BabyD’s grade one teacher instructs all of his students in the art of cup-stacking. Really. Baby demonstrated her growing proficiency at the last parent teacher conference. She loves it so much that she wants Mr. S for her teacher again next year.
I think it’s dorky, but it’s a better way to bribe children than handing out candy like her ballet teacher does. I cannot stand that the professionals I entrust my child to often feed her crap as a way to maintain control. I myself abandoned the candy thing early in my teaching career. I just don’t see long term good in such practices. They don’t instill a sense of doing for the sake of improvement in a kid at all. And for the record, I don’t pay my child to do well in school. Money grades will never happen in our house.
But to get back to the cups, it is a real sport. Really. It is.
The current champion of the cup stacking world is eleven. He has an endorsement deal with McDonald’s and his own cult following. Dare to dream that for your middle-schooler.
BabyD prefers dance. Rob thinks this is far too punishing physically to be a realistic long term goal for her, and I agree though I wouldn’t try to stop her because it really doesn’t hurt one to have a passion and goals. Of course, Rob is speaking from the point of view of one who literally had his back bone knocked loose as a 14 year old pursuing a hockey dream.
My only sport dream as a child was baseball until I was informed that gender matters.
What sports-ish, or other, dreams did you harbor as a wee one?
anniegirl1138 
I don’t give out food in classes either. Not even as a “last day” treat. I am just not that teacher. As for dreamer, I wanted to be a singer. The female Elvis.
I would like to see the female version of Elvis.
i got frustrated as a recreational soccer coach that there were parents paying their children for goals scored. i worked hard to teach them to pass, then these little a-holes would plow through, steal the ball from their own team mates just to go after a fiver…
my dream? astronaut… didn’t quite get there, but i came closer than i expected! surprised even myself…
I hated parents more when I coached than I ever did as a teacher. Behavior that was WAY over the top.
I was going to win Olympic gold medals in swimming. Still swim tho, so all was not lost.
I do reward grades with money; I am a desperate woman.
Money rewards never get smaller as children age and as a teacher, I saw too many kids hold their parents hostage and fail to develop much of an intrinsic rationale for doing things. But in the very short term and with carefully defined parameters, it can be a useful tool for priming the reluctant learner.
Using food to reward a child is a profoundly bad idea. Right up there with allowing them to sleep in the same bed with the parents.
Food rewards are the worst of the short term rewards except for money (because that escalates). I did the co-sleeping thing with BabyD though b/c of nursing and it continued simply b/c I didn’t have any back-up for weaning her to her own bed in the form of another parent backing me up. Of course with her dad being ill/then dead we had extenuating circumstances. Most of the truly ardent co-sleepers I know had children out of bed with them by school-age. It’s not a big deal really unless you are one of those who can’t manage to sleep in a less than pristine environment or have hang-ups up sex in places other than bed. Not to imply that any of these things are problems for you. I’m just saying.