I got such a positive response to my mentioning Behavior Charts that I thought I'd write a bit more about them. I printed them out and laminated them with my handy-dandy laminator. I love that thing.
We're also using reward jars and we'll reward with ice cream dates, park time, a new book (chosen by the reward earner), and alone time with either parent. We're doing "time rewards" rather than "thing rewards" because I feel that they're more meaningful at this age.
So far (we're only on Day Two), things are going well. All I have to do is calmly mention that the behavior I am seeing is not on the behavior chart and redirect to how they should be behaving instead. They seem to get it and love getting their tokens. I have to get to the teacher store to get different tokens since glass marbles in glass jars aren't really great for excited 3-year olds.
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| Behaviors are: 1. Clean up toys. 2. Dishes in sink. 3. Good mealtimes. 4. Good naptimes. 5. Listening to Mom and Dad 5 stickers = 2 tokens in reward jar 4 stickers = 1 token in reward jar Less than 4 stickers and no special toy upstairs at bedtime. |
Then, I got this wild idea that in the afternoons, not only do we need some outside time, but also some crafting time. So, I took the Crazies for a walk (no easy feat when it's rained here for the past 2 weeks and when it isn't raining, we're infested with gnats and mud...ick). This was not my cup of tea.
Either way, I had to get outside and out of the house, so we went for the damn walk...cheery, ain't I?
When we got back, they begged me to fingerpaint. Trust me...it wasn't my idea. They found some paints and paper that I stashed from a GG birthday gift. That's what I get for giving them their own rooms...every time I move a piece of furniture, they find something I'm trying to hide from them (and so do they)!
So, I rolled back the tablecloth, rolled up their sleeves, and put their smocks on. I gave them each a plate with their paints and one piece of paper.
At first, I tried to show Matt how to do it and he wigged out...no kidding...he wigged. So, he got another piece of paper that didn't have a perfectly drawn yellow M on it. Whatever, kid...no skin off my chin (I know that's not the proper saying, but is it really "skin off my teeth?" I have no idea).
Here are some pictures from the madness that ensued...I still can't believe I let them do this.
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| Hailey was very careful with her paints. She didn't like mixing the colors and worked on different parts of her paper. |
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| Matt loved mixing his colors to get "bwown" and pretended to wash his hands with his paints. |
