Money for nothin'

It's been a rough couple of weeks. We've been living in repetitious cycle, consisting of the following fun activities with our daughter:

Step 1: Refuse to do something (such as brushing teeth)
Step 2: Refuse 2nd request, stomp feet
Step 3: Refuse more loudly. Scream if necessary.
Step 4: Start the waterworks. Continue refusing, even when presented with potential negative consequence, such as possible time out.
Step 5: Scream, yell, and/or hit, as needed when being escorted to naughty chair
Step 6: continue yelling and screaming. Stand firmly, arms crossed, chin up when refusing to sit in naughty chair. Ignore various warnings that time portion of punishment will not start until properly seated
Step 7: finally sit. Try to play with cat, talk to /yell at parents while seated
Step 8: When finally released from punishment, behave for 3 minutes before finding another reason to repeat cycle.
Start again with Step 1.

In an effort to break the cycle, we decided to put in an incentive plan for good behavior - a star board. If she behaves (as she ought to without promise of recompense) she gets a star. If she gets 10 stars, she can pick a prize from a bowl of $1 target bin goodies we picked up this weekend. Stars do get taken away if she behaves badly. So far, so good. She's up to 5 stars, and is enthusiastic about earning more. Let's hope we've turned a corner!