More on Praise
When I consult my dictionary, the first definition of "praise" that I find is "to extol as though as deity"--that is, to praise as God. Few kids I know behave that well.
I contend that kids rarely do things deserving of praise but frequently do things worthy of acknowledgment. The difference is one of tone and delivery. When we praise we, by definition, shout to the heavens; when we acknowledge we make positive note of a behavior. Acknowledgment tends to be more genuine because, again, when we praise a behavior that is welcome but not extraordinary, our praise is over-the-top and out of proportion to the performance of the child.
Praise is also more a matter of how I, the adult, feel about what you did. Acknowledgment, on the other hand, is more about how you, the child, think about what you did.
Additionally, when we praise frequently our message gets lost in all the words spoken all the time. It's like the music playing in a department store--we may be vaguely aware of it in the background but we typically don't hear it.
Research on praise is very clear; for praise to have the desired effect of encouraging the child to repeat the praised behavior, it should occur randomly and infrequently, not every time the behavior happens. In contrast, acknowledgment, because it involves making quiet note of an appealing behavior, is genuine recognition of everyday conduct.
So, note the distinction between praise and acknowledgment and make it a practice to acknowledge those everyday behaviors--displaying courtesy by opening a door, showing initiative by completing homework, acting responsibly doing chores without being told--while dialing back on the praise unless the child does something truly extraordinary. And take care not to praise all the time.