Manner Spoons

We have been working on the improvement of manners at our house -- especially around the dinner time which seems to be getting louder and more chaotic as the days go by.  Rick helped Jaiden with a FHE lesson on Manners Monday night and then the kids played "Father May I."  Rick picked up some Wooden Spoons at the Dollar Store which the kids are currently painting.  For dinner last night, everyone was on the look out for good and bad manners.  Whoever displayed poor manners was stuck with one of the spoons.  Each spoon was assigned a clean-up job -- dishes, clearing and washing the table, clearing and washing the counters, and sweeping the floor.  We did see a drastic improvement in manners.  There is one problem, however.  Usually the above mentioned jobs are done by Janika, Jase, and Jared.  But on "manner spoon" days the three oldest  are very careful not to be caught with bad manners.  We didn't count Jenna -- she certainly would have "earned" one or two.  So Josh, Janelle, and Jaiden got stuck with the manner spoons for various reasons and of course they all need help with the jobs.  So although we do have children exhibiting more manners at the dinner table, it does mean more work for mom and dad in the clean up process.  But I guess I shouldn't be worried about that since the goal after is to teach good manners -- right?