I am just wondering what others are using to "guide" their children's behavior. Let's just say that some of the oldies but goodies are losing their charm here. Do you do anything specific to reward positive behavior? What are consequences for negative behavior?
Positive: We try hard to compliment them on good behavior and occasionally reward with treats. Honesty about rule breaking will always get a reduced punishment and we tell them it's reduced and why.
Negative: Natural consequences and punishments that fit the crime work best. Not doing chores reduces pay for chores, fighting with siblings means no playing with siblings, not picking up their toys means no playing with their toys, not eating their dinner means no dessert, etc. The hardest thing we've had to deal with is lying. We figured out a few years ago that there can't be one single punishment for lying. The punishment has to go with what they lied about. Lying about puting their clothes away might get their clothes taken, or we may have them put everyone's clothes away for a while. Lying about putting toys away may mean picking them ALL up the next day or two. Sometimes it's hard finding something that fits, but it has worked much better than anything else, especially if we tell them the exact reason they're getting the punishment. I only have 1 child now who still insists on lying and that's only because we can rarely catch her at it.
