Earning for learning

Every week Dylan has to learn up to 25 sight words/spelling words and takes a test every Friday. This can seem like a LONNNNGGGG process to learn. Dylan and I used to sit down and with a pen I would point at the word I would want him to read over and over AND OVER until he got them. I would hear the typical "awww agaaain?" "When am I going to be done?" and then the negotiating "If I get 5 more right can I be done until tomorrow?"
Bottom line I disliked it as much as he did.
     Dylan's routine is after school he does homework, has some play time, dinner, bath then in bed by 7. I know 7 seems early but he has a tv in his room and he is allowed one movie before bed (its the only tv time he has in a day, and it relaxes him) which puts him to bed about 8-8:30. For a while Mike and I were talking about letting him stay up a little longer because he is almost 7 which gave me an idea.

I sat Dylan down with these cards (in the picture below) and explained to him. "mommy has come up with a plan. On the back of these there are your spelling words for the week"

I continued "there is also a number on the bottom, the number is minutes you can earn if you get these words correct. His "lay down time" is 7 o clock but he can earn to stay up. The clock starts at 7 o clock and he does 10 of these cards an evening that hold up to 5 words. If there are words he struggles with I write them a few times on different cards and give him extra points. The points don't normally add up to more then an hour. When he earns his minutes he can choose in that time he gets what he wants to do however after 8 o clock there is no movie in his room but he can choose to watch a movie in his free time.

The minute I pick him up for school he says "Can we go home and earn minutes?" I feel like a genius. He is thrilled to work on his words, he gets straight A's, and he doesn't mess around. He has to get the words right or he doesn't earn his points which takes away the "I don't know what this one is" He takes his time and gets the job done. Genius I tell ya Genius! : )