For family night this week, we decided to come up with some family rules and a chart to help keep the girls motivated to keep those rules. While Kevin was at work, the girls and I got busy preparing a low budget "behavior chart," from things we had around the house. Each girl had a pocket with a card that had three sides. A green, yellow, and red with accompanying face, to show whether they were keeping the rules that day. We tried to focus on the positive side, as I read that was the best way to motivate them. Each day that they don't have a red card they get a sticker to put on their sticker chart. After they earn 5 stickers, they get to choose a "special privilege." They helped me come up with some "special privileges," which was fun. This is what we came up with, although I'm sure they will come up with more ideas as we go along.
SPECIAL PRIVILEGES
-Build a tent or a large princess castle (not sure how that's gonna work but we are good at making tents and have made many in the past)
-Get ice cream and play at McDonald's
-See a dollar movie with Mom and or Dad
-Make mini cupcakes or muffins with their muffin kit they got for Christmas
-Go to Zoyo for frozen yogurt
-Make "brownie faces" (something Brenna came up with where you bake brownies and then draw a face on them with frosting...not sure where that came from but it sounds fun:)
- Play at grandma's house (makes it seem like this is something they never do, but it happens quite often:)
-Rent a movie
-Buy something from the dollar store ( I had to talk them down from the toy aisles at Target and Walmart)
-Pick a treat from the candy box (that's where all the candy from the holidays go)
They were pretty excited about this list, and it gave me hope that this "program" would actually work! It's not like my kids are always horribly behaved, but we do come across some issues on a regular basis. Usually we respond to these issues with empty threats, which they know don't usually amount to much. Now we can finally reinforce our family rules in a way that they can expect and understand...hopefully.
Once it was time for family night, we all discussed some family rules. I wrote them down, and Kevin drew pictures so that they could understand what they each meant. I'm glad we have an artist in the family:)
It turned out to be a fun family night, and so far the girls have done really well. We are on day 3 and we've seen only green and yellow cards. We'll see how long that lasts:)
