This is the most asked question in this whole subject, and it is nearly always asked after a chart has died. The instinct is to swap the format. Usually the format was not the problem.
Four things get tried next, and it is worth knowing what each one actually changes.
| What people try next | What it fixes | What it repeats |
|---|---|---|
| Stopping altogether, just praise | No more losable score, no more admin | Nothing accumulates, so a good week leaves no trace a child can see |
| A marble or token jar | Physical, immediate, satisfying to add to | Marbles usually come back out, which is the same losable score in glass |
| Pocket money for chores | Real, and the child controls the payoff | Prices effort in money, so the day they decide it is not worth it, it is over |
| Screen time as the currency | Powerful, because it is what they want | Every reward becomes a loan against something they already had |
The part that usually broke
Ask what your chart did on the worst day of the week. If the answer is "nothing" or "went backwards", that is the thing to replace, and it is not the format.
A record of effort that can be reduced stops being something to try at and becomes something to defend, and the safe way to defend a total is to attempt less. A record with nothing to earn on a hard day pays nothing exactly when a child most needs it to pay something. Change either of those and a plain paper chart can survive for months. Change neither and a new app will die on the same schedule the old chart did.
What to keep
- Keep the accumulating total. Seeing two weeks of effort in one place is the whole mechanism; praise alone leaves nothing behind.
- Make it impossible to go backwards. Not "we try not to" — actually impossible, so it is never available in a bad moment.
- Give the hard day something to earn. Coming back after losing it is harder than any of the ordinary things, and should be worth the most.
- Let a missed day be blank. Nobody filled it in is information about the adults, not the child.
Climb Rewards is built on exactly those four, which is why it is a chart and not a replacement for one.