More YES's and less no's

Since summer is upon us, there is a lot of time to fill especially when you have a 7-year old, 5-year old and 6-week old and you only have six more weeks of maternity leave.  I randomly found a post called  "A Simple Tool for a More Positive Home" on handsfreemam.com.  After a lot of slacking off on my part(hey, I do have a newborn after all) I finally dragged the kids to the craft store where I picked up three mason jars and a bag full of puff balls.  The kids where curious to know what I was doing with such a random assortment of items.
After dinner I sat the children down and explained the process; every time they did something nice or did something without being asked they can earn a puff ball(bigger tasks can earn them bigger puff balls) and once they fill their jar they can choose do do something with just me or just their dad.  The bonus was that they couldn't lose puff balls once they earned them.  They seemed very excited!
We are now a couple weeks into the Puff Ball Challenge and attitudes are slowly changing.  There is more effort from the children to act nicely and help out in areas that yelling only turned them away from.  Also, there are more "yes" responses from both my husband and I.  So a win win for all involved.