Thursday, August 5, 2010

Another moment of Mom Inspiration






Okay these two little jars have become a big hit in our house. I was getting very frustrated and found myself raising my voice and repeating myself over and over again. I needed some kind of reward system that was physically easy to see, easy to maintain, fun to do for the little one and not financial because the list below is a list of the items that I believe should be done just because you are part of a family and live in the same house. But let's face it there is a reason kids like those shiney stars on charts. It's rewards and achievements. 
  So I was thinking about this.
I have a list of items that just drive me nutz. Everyone's is different as a Mom, but here is mine.
1) capri sun, cheese stick wrappers, fun fruit wrappers laying on the counter or the side table
2) backpack in the middle of the floor where it got dropped
3) shower towel on the floor in the bathroom
4) dirty clothes on floor in bedroom so Border Collie sleeps on them
5) Dirty dishes on table after you're done eating
6) Cereal box on counter? Do we think it will float away into the pantry itself?
7) School shoes no where to be found in the mornings

So this is my list of repeats. You could hear me mention these about 5 times a day each. Or to constantly remind when we take our clothes off for pjs to put them in the laundry basket etc.
So, we decorated these two jars. Mine is full of marbles. Everytime he does one of these without being asked my kiddo gets to take one of my "marbles" (which are leftover glass stones from the mosaic table and little wooden hearts I found in my craft room from some past craft. )Well he gets one of mine. If I have to ask him to do it he doesn't get any. And if I do it.... well you guessed it I get one back. We are on day three. It is working really well. My son walked in the house after school. Hooked up his backpack (marble 1), Put his shoes on the aforementioned days of school shelf for tomorrow (marble 2) and went to get a snack and threw the wrappers away (marble 3). Oh yeah Oh yeah! So fantastic. He was pleased as punch to move those three marbles to his jar. Last night he watched me take away one marble as I cleaned up capri sun wrapper off the counter. He was not to thrilled. best part is it is an easy maintenance. We talked about respect and honors and he gets to take the marbles for in his, but if he cheats I would be very disappointed and will go back to asking asking nagging nagging.

I don't know how long it will last, but we'll try and for day we are both happy! and I have no white socks laying in the middle of the floor next to the shoes to trip over. woohoo..

And I am happy to report the shelf with the days of the week on it is working awesome. Tomorrow is library. his book is on the shelf, his shoes are on the shelf and his school pride shirt is also on the shelf. It takes me about twenty minutes to load it up on the weekend after I do laundry and I don't have to spend twenty minutes a day finding something for him to wear in a sleepy stupor. I just ask him to wake up and get up and stretch and get moving and the first thing he does is get dressed. yeah Yeah Yeah.

And you ask what does he get out of the marbles.. well we sat down together and wrote out what we thought were good rewards. And they had to be rewards at the house because it was taking care of the home that he was getting the marbles for. And not a purchase of a new toy. Most of his items were really just time spent with my husband and I. Things that he would like us to do more of. that we do anyways, but he loves to do them and wants some bargaining leverage. So we wrote down a value for the "marbles"
so some of those were
Playing Legos with Mom for 15 minutes - 40 marbles
Picking a Movie to watch on the weekend - 50 marbles
Picking the Dinner Menu on a weekend night - 40 marbles
15 minute squirtgun fight outside on the weekend - 100 marbles
one campfire with marshmallows on a weekend night - 200 marbles
one overnight stay in the tent at the house on a weekend night  - 600 marbles

There are a few more, but they are all written up and very clear and posted on the fridge.

So I am hoping this will give him some sense of responsibility, cause and effect and saving for something, and reward for doing a great job. We'll see how it goes. I will be happy to not be a nag which I hate to be. and get some help around the house so I dont feel like I've lost my "marbles" I'll keep you updated!
Enjoy!
Chris




Chris Durnan, designer at www.visualdesignsbychris.com GSD KNK WPC AI SCUT files for your personal digital cutters for use with scrapbooking, cardmaking and other hobbies. Whatever your creative mind can come up with!

My files work on many machines. Some of them are: Klik-n-kut, Pazzle, Wishblade, Silhouette, Cricut, Craft Robo. Some of the software involved with these machines are: Funtime, Scrapbooking, WinPC/Signlab, Inkscape, Create & Cut, Illustrator, KNK Studio, Robomaster, DesignMaster and the list goes on..... Enjoy!

And our cutter file "freebies" are kept in the forum. We add to them as we can.

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