iRewardChart is an smart phone app that lets you “incentivize” (read: bribe) your children to behave.

At first, I didn't like the sound of this. Are parents expected to track and pay out rewards for things that children should do anyway, like chores, homework, and behaving respectfully to adults? How about kids just do those things—and in return, we don't spank their little behinds?

Then I remembered that I don't believe in corporal punishment. Also, this concept isn't much different than my parents giving me an allowance for good behavior. If I acted like a little snot (which I rarely did, of course), I did not get an allowance. Isn't the app operating on the same principle?

Seeing a rewards chart clearly displayed on an iPhone may make incentives seem a little silly, but you can't argue with the effectiveness of a clear goal. Here is how it works.

Each child (or spouse) gets a chart. You can add a picture to each person's chart, so you can keep your family members straight. When you click on a name, you'll see a weekly chart that runs from Sunday through Saturday.

You set the tasks for which people will be rewarded, and they can be different for each person. The app lets you choose from a long list of preset tasks, including Take Bath, No Junk Food, Comb Hair, and No Whining. You can also add your own customized tasks.

Each day that your child performs his or her tasks satisfactorily, you touch the star that corresponds to that date, and it turns gold. If someone’s daily task performance was extra special, you can award multiple stars. If things didn’t go well, though, you can either subtract the star or even give a negative star that the child must redeem at a later date.

Each child gets a running total of stars. Once they start accumulating stars, they can choose when to redeem them. If you touch Balance, you can see how many stars they have to spend. If they choose to spend some on a reward, you touch Payout to choose from the possible rewards. For instance, 10 stars may equal $2 in pocket money. A trip to the zoo might cost 60 stars. Once you've paid out a reward, the child's balance is adjusted accordingly.

You can also edit the rewards. Perhaps you don't allow sleepovers yet, so that particular 25-point reward can be deleted. But maybe your child really likes fishing, so you can reward good behavior with a fishing trip instead, for a star quota that you set yourself.

Once you pay out a reward, you also have the option to share these things over Facebook and Twitter, although that might just annoy your social networks. That would be the electronic equivalent of the My Child Was Student Of The Month bumper stickers. Cute idea but I don't think anyone but you - and maybe the grandparents - really cares.

What if you have particularly devilish (or technically brilliant) children who gets into your iPhone, open the app, and give themselves stars for things they have not done? The developers thought of that! You can lock the app with a four-number code so your little stinkers don't falsify their own charts. And if you catch them trying to do this, you might have to add a rewards category called Not Hacking Parent's Electronics.

iRewardChart is available on all iOS devices. There’s a free version called iRewardChart Lite that lets you track just one child with four tasks per week. The full version costs $3.99 and lets you track an unlimited number of kids and tasks.

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