Monthly Archives: July 2011

If you don’t properly instill the habit of turning off lights in your kids, they’ll often end up wasting a lot of electricity and costing you a lot of money. How can you build this habit? Here are 3 proven ways.

Method #1 – Charge Them $1 Every Time a Light is Left On

Kids love their allowances. Having money is a privilege to most kids. It really sucks when your allowance is taken away; because it feels like something that’s already yours was taken away from you.

That’s why this method is so effective. If you charge your kid $1 from their allowance every time a light is left on, they’ll get the message very quickly.

Make sure you are absolutely meticulous about this. If you let your kids slide “just this one time,” they won’t really get that the consequence of leaving a light on is for real.

It may take a week or two, but with this system your kids will learn to turn off their lights pretty quickly.

Method #2 – Make it a Competition

If you have several kids, another way to get them to turn off lights is to make it a competition.

Whoever turns off more lights wins at the end of the week. The winner gets a small prize – A toy, a chore done by dad, whatever it is that’s small yet desirable.

This makes turning off lights fun for kids, which means it will actually get done.

Method #3 – Have Your Kids Turn Off the Lights

Unlike the other two methods, this method doesn’t involve any kinds of incentives at all.

Once you’ve taught your kids the importance of turning off lights, then simply explain which lights they need to turn off and when.

If they miss turning off the lights, have them turn it off. Never ever ever turn off a light for your child – That will teach them that leaving lights on is okay and that you’ll just turn it off for them. Instead, pull them away from whatever they’re doing and have them turn it off.

If you interrupt them during their favorite episode of SpongeBob or Dexter’s Lab because they forgot to turn off the lights, they’ll quickly get the message: “I’ll have to turn it off anyway; I might as well do it when I leave the room so that I don’t have to do it later (when I’m playing video games.)”

This method also takes a week or two to take effect, but once your kids get it the habit will be instilled just about for life.

Whichever method rings the most true for you, go with that. By instilling this habit today, you’ll save hundreds of dollars every year on your electricity bill.