Habitz App – Help Children Develop Healthy Habits

This post is sponsored #ad by Habitz, but opinions expressed are my own!  I only work with and share brands I know and love.

As a parent, we hope our best qualities and habits rub off on our children.  There are things we set out to teach them, opportunities that naturally occur, and others learned through our every day interactions and observations.  So when opportunities come that help us teach our children to develop healthy habits, I’m certain I am not the only one that jumps at the chance to try it out.  And let me just say, how cool is it that if you sign up for this app {HERE}, they’ll send you a FREE GIFT (seriously, FREE!) when your child hits 500 coinz!!  Read on to see just how EASY earning coinz really is!!

FOSTERING HEALTHY HABITS

As summer approaches, I find I research ideas of activities that my kids can do at home or in the community, crafts they can make (especially their favorite: Slime), chore charts we can implement, and all-together schedules we can adopt to make our lazy summer days last as long as they can, yet not feel like an eternity of monotony and boredom.

I am a check list person, myself.  The more items I can add to my list, the better.  One example of this is when I clean my kitchen.  I do not just put, “Wipe down fridge.”  Oh, no! my friends, I put:

• Wipe left door.
• Wipe Right door.
• Wipe Left handle.
• Wipe Right handle.

I love looking down a page of finished checks!  The more I have, the more accomplished I feel.  Nothing makes me feel like I have conquered the day quite like a page full of neatly checked boxes.  I have been working like mad to have this habit rub off on my kids.  Unfortunately they don’t quite feel the same pride as I staring at a page full of checks.Summertime Bucket List 2

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU?

There are four things that motivate my kids above all else:  Money, treats, prizes, and screen time.  If our kids want to have extra spending money, they do extra chores in the home.  If they want extra screen time, they have to earn it by reading or exercising.  30 minutes reading or 30 minutes physical activity = 30 minutes of game time.  This works well in our home.  So when we were approached to review this app, our kids were excited to try it since it involves technology.  In fact, with an electronic checkmark list that we customize, thus helping them develop healthy habits as they earn prizes, I’m not sure who was more excited to try it, us or them.

EFFORTLESS DOWNLOAD AND SET-UP

After downloading the app onto their devices, it was really simple to set up an account and profile for each child, connected to our own Parent account and device.  There was a short tutorial to educate the child on the basics of what it looks like, how they check off the items, how easy it is to earn “coinz,” how to purchase prizes from Amazon, how to connect with friends, and how to get back to their home page.  It was so straightforward, even our 8-year old understood it immediately.

EYES ON THE PRIZE

There are two areas within the prize section of the app that you can choose from: Toys and Activities.  Toys, obviously our kids most looked forward to prizes, are purchased from Amazon.  Just know that these are purchased by you.  With four kids doing every single thing they could to earn prizes, coinz would be accumulated quickly, amounting to more money paid out-of-pocket than we usually spend.  We allowed our kids to earn enough for one of their wish list choices from the Toy section, telling them that from now on, unless it’s for a special occasion, they needed to spend their coinz in the Activities section.  Here are a few choices that they’ve purchased: +1/2 hour screen time for 200 coinz.  Day out with Dad for 200 coinz.  +1/2 hour to bedtime for 200 coinz. Convert coinz to $$$ for 1,000 coinz.  And because of the ease of their earning coinz, the Convert to cash has been purchased more than once.

There were excited gasps as each child searched through the many items that they could purchase with their coinz.  “Oh my gosh, did you see this?”  “I’m going to save up for that!”  “This is SO cool!”  On and on the chatter continued as they scrolled through the prize list, eagerly adding items to their Wish Lists.  In a world prevalent with instant gratification expectations, it’s nice that we can also teach our kids about waiting, working and saving towards your goals.  With their eyes on the prize, they easily navigated back to their home page, ready to begin.

Brennon(10) immediately asked if he could have some “yogurt” and a “glass of milk” for a snack, Tyson tried the “physical activity” option, which got Keilie(14) excited to try it with him.  At one point, we had three kids in the front room doing planks, push ups, sit ups and jumping jacks.  With the limited space in the “front room turned home gym,” Shelby went to “straighten up her room,” a customize option we added. Having a clean room with made bed promotes a more calming effect in the bedroom, which promotes a more peaceful sleep.  So, not only will the “on time bedtime last night” and “woke up on time” goal promote healthy sleep Habitz, we’ve added another element that we believe will reinforce the importance of a good night’s rest.

SETTING OUR DAILY GOALS

Because we believe that healthy habits include more than just the physical body, we added “read for 30 minutes” each night, with plans to add additional time during the summer months ( Summer Reading Log Printable), as well as: Say morning and evening prayers, read scriptures, chores, finish your homework, and spend time on a talent.

“Mom, could we have… (looking at the Habitz app, scrolling their the suggested challenges) “Beans“… “Vegetables“… and a… “Lean meat” for dinner?”

READY, SET, GO!

After dinner (yes, I made them their Habitz request!) we sat down with each child to hear them tell us what they were going to work towards, see what goals they still had left to accomplish, add more goals we’d discussed around the dinner table, and gauge their understanding of the app.  It was fun hearing them ask their siblings how many coinz they’d earned, challenge each other to see who could earn the most coinz, and encourage each other to finish as many goals as they could before bedtime.  Who knows, maybe tonight will be a bit like Christmas Eve: each child willingly and excitedly going to bed without any real prompting from us!!

WHAT SHOULD I DO TODAY?

Finally, one of the features that we really like when adding a goal is the option to customize the “repeat” option.  During the school year, we read for a minimum of 30 minutes on the weekdays, and an hour a day on the weekends.  When we put “read for 30 minutes,” we can “repeat” that goal Monday- Friday, easily adding “read for 60 minutes” on Saturday and Sunday.  Fast, simple, genius!

TRIED AND TRUE REVIEW

Alright, tonight is May 10th, 2018.  Our first full day is done!  Wanting this to be a true trial period and review of the app, we’ll see how the next month goes in our home.  I’m really hoping I can catch my kids doing some of their goals, snapping a sneak picture if I can.  I will not prompt them in any way, instead seeing if the notifications prompt and encourage them.  I will not stage them doing things, instead hoping that I can catch them in the act.  No asking how many coinz they’ve earned, no checking up on their progress throughout the day, nothing.  This will be a true test of how this app can help my children (ages 8, 10, 11, and 14) develop healthy habits.

MORNING NUMERO UNO

By the time I made it out of my bedroom at 6:19am (anything between the 5:00-7:00am hours is known as “Satan’s Hour” in our home!), the three youngest had already made their beds, brushed their teeth, straightened their rooms, and exercised.  You read that right, all before I came out of my room at SIX NINETEEN A.M.!  The early bird gets stuff done!

Brennon, while looking at the school lunch menu: “I would normally have the Corn Dog, but today I’ll choose the Caesar Salad (pronounced: Kay-Czar, so cute!) instead.”

The boys are going on a Father and Sons campout tonight.  When Randy asked both Brennon and Tyson what snacks they wanted, they both said “No soda, no chocolate, little salt.”  They’re excited to check off all three.  Those coinz are a big deal!  What 8 or 10-year old boy would willing choose to go without S’mores at a campout without a significant reward?!

I feel like this app is a success, so far.  All before the kids left for school at 8:30am!

TYRING TO GET IN OUR FISH

Tyson(8) wanted to get as many of the goals as possible, so we told him that if he tried a Crab Salad that Randy had purchased earlier in the week, we’d give the goal to him.

Minutes before bed, he said he’d try it, go brush his teeth, and then mark off the last of his goals for the day.

After gagging down three bites, I gave it to him.  Deep, deep gags that were making me gag.  He did not like the crab salad, but was willing to gag it all down for the coinz.  This little boy was serious in his desire to get all of the goals!  “Mom, so do you think you could get some other fish, like those fish shaped fish sticks we got that one time?”  So we did!  The next morning he asked if he could have them for breakfast.  When he puts his mind to something, he really commits!

ONE MONTH IN REVIEW

It turns out that we didn’t need any sort of notification from the app itself.  The kids didn’t even need me to ask them about it.  They were constantly asking to update their status, always checking off things they knew they needed to do or stay away from, even going so far as to ask me not to make a family treat on Sunday night (something we do every single week!) because they were trying to Avoid Chocolate, Avoid Junk Food, and Avoid Sweet Treats.

Along with the food they wanted to avoid, my kids also made sure to actually have timers in place for their screen time.  They were adamant that they wanted to stay under the 2 hours a day limit.  I was very impressed.  With each coin earned, they counted down to their prizes, many times adding something new to their list as they checked their progress.  It was amazing to see the things they were willing to do, eat, give up, and forgo to earn points for their prizes.  They were hooked!!  They have come to us before bed (but after they’d brushed their teeth and already said their nighttime prayers), asking to polish off their Habitz goals.

One month, and still going strong!

I would highly recommend this app.  It is so much fun!  Download it today {HERE}, give it a try, and comment what you think!!  Not only is it a fun app that gets kids excited, but you are just 500 coinz away from a FREE GIFT!!  Just in time for summer– it doesn’t get much better than that, my friends!!

~Steph