losing our marbles

I'm trying a new method of discipline.  The deal is that each morning the boys put 4 marbles in their pockets.  If they are good little boys they get to keep all their marbles.  If they are wicked little boys I will take their marbles one by one for each wicked deed.  At the end of the day they get to put any marbles left in their pocket into their jar.  When the jar is all filled up they get a special date with mama or daddy.

Now I'm hearing you ask..."Are your boys only wicked 4 times a day?"  No it isn't that literal.... I don't have that many marbles even in the big jar...  It is for disobeying or talking back or physical violence toward each other those sorts of things... that they would lose a marble.  Really the same things you or I would lose our marbles over.  They are very excited and a bit confused I think cause Eli asked as he put his marbles into his jar tonight before bed if he gets his treat now.  I had to remind him that he had to fill the jar completely before he got that special date.  It may take some figuring out.

I tried to pick the pint sized jars and not the quarts, but it still may have been an overshot.  In any case we're on our way and what is different from the sticker charts we had been doing is that we don't have to be in the kitchen at the moment of praise or reproach which widens our scope of life quite a bit.  Hopefully this won't scar them in any way for the future regarding marbles.  They are one of the finer things in life and I would hate to be responsible for the tarnishing of the marble association in a young child's life.  I guess only time will tell.