Nice Bear Naughty Bear Reward Chart app review

Tidy your room - don't push your sister - will you share please? - stop shouting - try some broccoli ... Do you ever get the feeling you're telling your kids the same thing over and over again and that nagging is getting you absolutely nowhere ?! Then you'll love the Nice Bear Naughty Bear Reward Chart app.

Reward charts are renowned for being absolutely brilliant for potty training - Pierre used to get really excited about peeling off a sticker and sticking it on his wall chart every time he managed to do a wee or a poo in his potty !- but with this app, you can keep the concept going on way past potty training and into general life. The app has a number of bears, some nice and some naughty, who correspond to different things that you want to encourage or prevent.

Juliette and Pierre loved discovering the different bears and reading their rhymes. You may already know the bears from their books, but if you don't, here's a taster :

There are nice Bears and naughty 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.

A handy feature for slightly older children is that you can define together what the rewards will be. Juliette asked me to add a magazine and a packet of sweets as her rewards - could have been worse ! Both of them, even almost-3-year-old Pierre, have understood that they will get points for being especially good but that they will also lose points for bad behaviour. You define both the selected behaviours to encourage or discourage and the number of points needed for the reward. Unlike the naughty step, you can take your iphone or ipad out and about with you so that you can instantly reward or punish wherever you are. Listening to the "Meet the Bears" rhymes together is also a good distraction technique, if you're in a waiting room or on a long bus journey and your kids are getting tired and grumpy.

Once your child has achieved the predetermined number of points on their reward chart, they get a congratulatory message. You can also print or share a certificate.

The app costs £1.99 but you can also try out a free taster version. The creators explain : "Nice Bear Naughty Bear Reward chart Lite is designed for occasional use and to give you a free flavour of the full app.  Lite only supports one child, one reward and five points per week. You can see all sixteen bears but only listen to the Thank You Bear and Boasting Bear rhymes. For complete access please upgrade to full app."

star rating : 4/5

RRP : £1.99 for the full app, free for the Lite app

for more information : http://www.nicebearnaughtybear.com/index.html

Disclosure : We received a free code in order to write an honest review.

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