As the kiddos start back to school this week, I thought it would be a good time to bring up one of my favorite topics: Rewards. The school year is filled with many opportunities to reward and praise our children for good behavior, monumental strides in education, and achievements in sports or extracurricular activities. My question to you is this: How do you reward your children?

If any of you find yourself coming to the same conclusion: Food. You are not alone. After a good day of school it’s easy to make a drive-thru visit and order milkshakes for good behavior. After the big win it’s fun to gather for pizza. It’s instantly satisfying to toss a piece of candy to a student that answers a question correctly. On the other hand, we tend to do the same things for bad days as well. Are you suffering heartbreak after a bad breakup? Consult a Ben & Jerry’s pint. Was the day a complete and utter failure? Did you visit the Wal-Mart Bakery to buy a cookie cake all for yourself? Well, ok, I’m guilty of that one...

The point is that at some point in our lives we started to form an emotional connection with food. One time I was looking through Pinterest for some motivational quotes and I came across this one: “Do not reward yourself with food, you’re not a dog.” That was my aha! Moment. Even in my own personal life whenever I reached a goal, I wanted to reward myself with food. And that my friends, can be a slippery slope. Can I ask you a personal, rhetorical, question? How many of you are 100% happy with your body? How many of you struggle with losing weight? Are there any of you that would give your left leg so that your children would never have to feel the struggle that you feel now? If any of you raised your hand like the table flags at Casa Bonita, then this article might just before you. And don’t worry, I’m not selling anything!

I believe that it’s the small changes that win the marathon. Changing the direction of your family’s health is not an easy task. But I have one change that I think is easy to implement. Instead of using the usual food as a reward method, try a different approach. Here are some examples. Be sure to think of things that your children would like and try to tailor the activities to them.

Praise their accomplishments and....Go for a family walk. Let your child pick out a movie for a family movie night. Surprise them with a new can of Play-Doh and build a sculpture with them. Let them stay up 10 minutes after their usual bedtime. Let your kid Facetime with a favorite family member to tell them about their accomplishment. Drive directly to Wal-Mart and buy a frame for a work of art. Swing by a park for a 15 minute impromptu play time. Keep a roll of stickers and surprise them with one when they get into the car. Let them pick out a new car air freshener for their ride.

These are just a few examples of ways that you can celebrate an accomplishment. Most are low cost or no cost, and are more relational than a piece of candy. Get creative! You can even ask your kids to come up with some of their own ideas!

Jennifer Avery is the Director of the non profit agency, “The Rowan Fund”, which seeks to support adoptive and foster families in Okmulgee County. She resides in Morris, OK with her husband and two children. Questions or comments? Send them to RowanFamilyTree@gmail.co m.