This time of year comes with some better behavior in our house. With the threat of Santa watching, everyone minds their p's and q's a bit better. Now I know there's some psychology of why that's not a good threat to use and honestly it's really only effective for a small age group so no matter if you use the tactic or not, you may need some extra supports after the holiday season is over. Once you can't say Santa is watching anymore, how do we keep these kiddos minding their manners daily?
You may already have a good system in place and if that's the case- please share! Or maybe you have a docile child that doesn't need new incentives, or systems, or radical strategies every few months to stay in line. Yay for those special boys. But, if you have a Frank, if you have a strong-willed middle child who is smarter than his own good and schools you on how to parent most of the time, then maybe another tool in your belt could be useful.
Today I share with you our "Let's Have a Good Day Chart". It started as a chore chart and kind of morphed into this good day chart because there were a few things we wanted to instill differently. We didn't want the bare necessities of taking care of yourself like brushing your teeth and getting dressed to be on a chore list. These things are not chores, they don't get an allowance, they're just part of becoming a big kid. Now we do add stickers or check marks so there is a sense of accomplishment. And if there's a really good week we may give a reward of getting to pick the dinner menu for the family or picking the movie on movie night. We also wanted to implement a way to set expectations that were realistic to what we knew needed to be done to get through our day. We spent so many days arguing about simple tasks like getting dressed in the morning that inevitably everyone was late for school and work. And that had to change.
So grab the chart above, edit it to your liking, print it out, laminate it and hang it somewhere accessible to your pre-schooler/early elementary son. Then let me know how it goes!
XO-
Jen