Trying something new
I've never really had to resort to gimmicky sort of discipline techniques. Time out (gimmicky in and of itself, I suppose) has always worked out just fine for us. That is, until recent times...
...things have been rather, um, rough on the homefront. Jack pushes buttons that I didn't know I had. Emma is no better. So, I figured it was time to think of something to try and calm things down around here.
I've tossed around the idea of doing some sort of chore chart, something that would hopefully get some order back in the house. I've since decided to hold off on that until they get older.
Jack started school in September. At back to school night, his teacher showed me one of her discipline techniques. She has a paper pond with paper frogs in it. When the child acts up, the frog gets removed from the pond. If the child continues to act out, then the child gets placed in a 2 minute time out. I thought this was a terrific idea. However, time outs are are a frequent as blinking around here, so I'm not sure that implementing another form of it would really be useful. So, I got to thinking...
...on Jack's bus, if the kids behave they get a ticket. They bring the ticket to school the next day and it goes in a jar. At the end of the week, if there are a substantial number of tickets in the jar, the kids get a prize. Jack LOVES getting these tickets, his face lights up when he's telling me about it. So, I decided to try my own version of this.
I'm going to devise something called a Mommy Ticket, (or a Mommy and Daddy Ticket) and when the kids do something good, they get a ticket. If they do something bad, I take tickets away. Once their jar is empty, THAT is when they get a time out. If they have 5 (maybe 3, I'm not sure yet) tickets (or more), they get to pick a prize out of the toy chest.
I'm going to type up their rules, and get some toys from the dollar store and make up some tickets. I think I'm going to go to the craft store to pick up jars to hold their tickets once they get them.
We shall see if it works. I guess I'm hopeful that them being able to see a physical representation of a reward as opposed to verbally praising (or scolding) will do the trick. Here's to hoping!!
...things have been rather, um, rough on the homefront. Jack pushes buttons that I didn't know I had. Emma is no better. So, I figured it was time to think of something to try and calm things down around here.
I've tossed around the idea of doing some sort of chore chart, something that would hopefully get some order back in the house. I've since decided to hold off on that until they get older.
Jack started school in September. At back to school night, his teacher showed me one of her discipline techniques. She has a paper pond with paper frogs in it. When the child acts up, the frog gets removed from the pond. If the child continues to act out, then the child gets placed in a 2 minute time out. I thought this was a terrific idea. However, time outs are are a frequent as blinking around here, so I'm not sure that implementing another form of it would really be useful. So, I got to thinking...
...on Jack's bus, if the kids behave they get a ticket. They bring the ticket to school the next day and it goes in a jar. At the end of the week, if there are a substantial number of tickets in the jar, the kids get a prize. Jack LOVES getting these tickets, his face lights up when he's telling me about it. So, I decided to try my own version of this.
I'm going to devise something called a Mommy Ticket, (or a Mommy and Daddy Ticket) and when the kids do something good, they get a ticket. If they do something bad, I take tickets away. Once their jar is empty, THAT is when they get a time out. If they have 5 (maybe 3, I'm not sure yet) tickets (or more), they get to pick a prize out of the toy chest.
I'm going to type up their rules, and get some toys from the dollar store and make up some tickets. I think I'm going to go to the craft store to pick up jars to hold their tickets once they get them.
We shall see if it works. I guess I'm hopeful that them being able to see a physical representation of a reward as opposed to verbally praising (or scolding) will do the trick. Here's to hoping!!
I like this idea!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter uses a version of that at school with her teacher. My little E has been difficult too and I'm wondering if this would work better for her!
I love that! When my girls were small we used something called the voucher system. It was a lot of work at first to remember to use it consistently but it worked great once we got going.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a great idea. I remember watching a special on the Dilley sextuplets a long time ago and they had a whole system that incorporated chores as well as behavior. It was a ladder system and each person had a little peg that moved up and down. I don't remember exactly how it worked, but if you did your chores and followed the rules, you earned "Dilley Dollars" that could be exchanged for things like TV time, a small amount of money, etc.
ReplyDeleteI think there are probably some very simple chores Jack could do, but it would make more sense to wait until Emma can do more also and they're on more of an even level. In the meantime just making it behavior-based sounds great and I hope you keep us updated on how it works!