Picture #1
See Picture #2
Picture #3
Picture #4
June 1st was our last day of school. I have been really excited for the summer so that I could do some fun activities with the girls that I don't usually get to do during the school year. I also want to make sure that Abigail doesn't regress over summer with everything that she has learned this year. We have worked so hard. Another thing I want to
do is teach my kids the importance of hard work and I want to do chores with them and stuff. I know, ambitious, right? Well, I was really excited about my plan, butI forgot that my kids don't always make life easy and even fun things aren't so fun when there is so much fighting, screaming, arguing, etc. going on. Especially when all three girls are together for an extended period of time (like the summer). So, this morning was the crack down. I came up with a few charts and rules so that I could keep my sanity, the girls had a goal to work towards and we could get to all the fun stuff.
Here they are... the potty charts.
See picture #4 do is teach my kids the importance of hard work and I want to do chores with them and stuff. I know, ambitious, right? Well, I was really excited about my plan, butI forgot that my kids don't always make life easy and even fun things aren't so fun when there is so much fighting, screaming, arguing, etc. going on. Especially when all three girls are together for an extended period of time (like the summer). So, this morning was the crack down. I came up with a few charts and rules so that I could keep my sanity, the girls had a goal to work towards and we could get to all the fun stuff.Here they are... the potty charts.
"But wait" you say, "Aren't your twins 3 1/2 and potty-trained already?" My response to that is yes, friends, my twins have been potty-trained about 4-5 different times. I think we started discussing this when they were 2. This last time I was sure we were in the clear cause both girls had gone an entire week with not one single accident. That is what I get for thinking. We are back to several accidents a day now for what seems to be the one-thousandth time. We even threw a party last time and did a conga line all around the house when I was sure the twins were potty-trained for good. This is getting beyond frustrating and ridiculous and the thing is that I know the girls can do it. I think they choose not to sometimes out of sheer laziness or just not paying attention to what their bodies are telling them to do. So here we go AGAIN on the potty-training. This time, they get a sticker if they go in the potty, but they have to get an X through a sticker if they have an accident. Once they have 21 stickers on their chart with no X's we can go to Wal-mart and pick out a toy that is $10 or less from the store and if this doesn't work folks, I give up and they may just be wearing diapers at their high school graduation.
"Here we go again."
Elizabeth is a sneaky one. I have to keep an eye on this girl. She got a hold of the stickers that I was keeping safely tucked away and was filling her chart up. I made her remove all of the stickers and we had a chat about honesty. Little Stink!
See Picture #3
Thankfully Abigail is potty-trained, but she needs some improvement on listening, obeying, and doing things the first time that Darin and I ask without argument. So, this chart is very similar to the potty chart except she will get a sticker on the smiley face chart if she does what she is told the first time she is told to do it. If she doesn't do it or has to be reminded she gets a big X through her sticker. When she gets 21 stickers that don't have X's through them, she gets to pick a toy out at Wal-mart under $10. Why 21, you ask? Well, because it takes 21 times of doing something before it becomes a habit.
Thankfully Abigail is potty-trained, but she needs some improvement on listening, obeying, and doing things the first time that Darin and I ask without argument. So, this chart is very similar to the potty chart except she will get a sticker on the smiley face chart if she does what she is told the first time she is told to do it. If she doesn't do it or has to be reminded she gets a big X through her sticker. When she gets 21 stickers that don't have X's through them, she gets to pick a toy out at Wal-mart under $10. Why 21, you ask? Well, because it takes 21 times of doing something before it becomes a habit.
Picture #2
Nazi mom is out in full force. Do you remember the Zero Tolerance policies at your grade schools? Well my house now has a Zero Tolerance policy. I was beginning to notice that I have become more grouchy, loose my temper more than I should and I don't like how that feels. The things that frazzle me the most are screaming, fighting, and arguing. So, I now have a Zero Tolerance for those things and the children have been informed that they will be immediately removed from what ever they are doing if they start screaming, fighting, or arguing. There will be no negotiating or trying to talk things through. I just can't take any of that stuff. Today was the first day implementing these things and I think it went well for the most part until about 4:00 in the afternoon. I will try again tomorrow and see if we can make it to 5:00 with out any major issues.
(See picture #1) Now for the things that started this all. There are 3 jars that I have made a chore jar, a learning jar, and an activity jar. The girls get to pick out of these jars each day: chores first, then learning (reading, math, writing, etc.), then if they have finished those things the reward is the fun jar. The girls were really excited about this, so they really stayed on task with their chores and "homework" so they could get to the fun stuff. For our fun activity today we made a time capsule. We will be burying it in our backyard tomorrow and plan on opening it in 10 years when the girls are 16 & 13.
No comments:
Post a Comment