Nice Bear Naughty Bear: Options
When you load the app the first thing I recommend doing is setting up a profile for your child by selecting Manage in the bottom right hand corner and then Add Child where you will need to enter in your child's name, picture (optional), date of birth (optional) and favorite color. Once your child's profile has been added click on Bear points next on their profile and you now have the option to Manage Rewards and Manage Bear Behaviours. Click Manage Rewards to Add Rewards and set the points required to claim them. Click Manage Bear Behaviours to switch on/off bears and to Add Bear. Click Home in the bottom left corner to return to all options which includes Award, Reward, Meet the Bears and How to use.
Nice Bear Naughty Bear: Add Reward
Click Award to give your child points for good or bad behaviour, good behavior is easily recognisable by a 'ding' sound, whereas bad gets a 'buzz'. As your child earns / loses points the counter increases or decreases appropriately. When enough bear points are earned you can claim a reward by clicking Reward along the bottom. You can select from set rewards or the ones you have added yourself. When a reward is given you have the option to email a certificate which can be printed or share it on Twitter or Facebook.
Nice Bear Naughty Bear: Awards
Ben loves the Meet the Bears option on the home screen. Each of the bears have an associated picture and rhyme which can be played. I think this is a great idea as it helps to reinforce the particular behavior that the bears represent and helps young children to learn and understand what the difference between types of behavior are. If there is any confusion when explaining why your child has done something wrong, you can play the specific bear to help them understand which I have found useful. I love the following description of the bears:
Shy Bears and haughty Bears, Messy Bears, oh what a sight,
And bears that always think they’re right. Bully Bears that have no friends
And Kind Bears that make amends. Pushing, shoving, grumpy Bears,
Not bothering to see who cares. But you and I know Bears that say,
Please and thank you every day.
And soon all Bears are bound to find,
Life is nicer when you are kind.
We have had a lot of success so far using this app. Ben knows if he does something good that we can pick a bear to add point to, whereas he knows if he does something naughty a 'buzz' noise is on the way which he definitely doesn't like. I think this type of reward system is good as it goes beyond a sticker chart which only teaches good behavior and also helps a child to understand the consequences of doing something bad or naughty. As it is an app, it is easily accessible if you are out and about too so good or bad behavior can be recognised instantly rather than waiting until you go home to update a physical chart. It should also be noted that you have the option to print out reward charts if you wish which are suitable for printing on A4 sized pages.
Nice Bear Naughty Bear: Reward
Nice Bear Naughty Bear is available to download from the App Store and is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and priced at £1.99 but there is also a free Lite version available if you want to give it a go and see if it will work for you and your child first.
*Disclaimer: I received a promo code to download Nice Bear Naughty Bear but this has in no way biased my opinion - I think it is a fantastic idea and really works well to encourage good behavior in kids.
