<p>We “rewarded” our kids, not for individual grades, but for the quality of the report card at the end of the term. Like some of you said, we felt it was more of a bonus than a bribe. On the other hand, I admit that I bribed D2 for a couple of years to practice her instrument. I was so sick of the endless fight every evening that I ended up clocking practice time instead. I paid her for every hour over 5 hours a week. Did it work? Absolutely. It made my evenings much more restful, and she improved dramatically. In fact, after a few months, she was working for herself rather than for the bribe, but it seemed unfair to break the contract and this provided her with extra pocket money which became increasingly useful as she got older, all the more so as those practice hours were generally being spent by her friends baby-sitting for their pocket money.</p>