A little change

Blake and I were having some behavioral differences... yep that's the nice way to say that there was a lot of misbehavior and grumpy mommy moments. After a frustrating weekend, I decided it was time for some intervention. I'd tried talking, I'd tried time-out, I'd tried loss of priveledges, Richard tried all those things too and well... nothing seemed to be working.

On Sunday, I decided it was time to put a behavior plan in place. When I was teaching kindergarten I never put a whole class behavior plan in place unless it was just to point out the positives. I would put it in place to reward those who did the right thing instead of one to punish those who did the wrong thing. I always felt that the children who struggled with behavior issues got enough attention so when they had a behavior plan it was a plan specifically for them and was sent home daily to be signed by the parents.

Back to my plan for Blake (and Colby too). I created this chart:


The magnets are on the chart and they lose the magnets if they are not doing the items in the boxes. Having all four magnets allows them to do some of the extra things they like to do (ie: watch tv, play on the computer, play Wii, pick an extra story at bedtime, playground). This seems to be working well. We had a few challenges on Monday, but after missing out on playing with things their brother got to do, it's helping both of them.

I give one warning and then take off the magnet. They can also earn back their magnets by changing their choices and changing the behavior that made them lose the magnet. It is harder to earn it back than lose it.

I love when you see things click and they realize that they can have more fun when they behave than when they misbehave.

(as an aside, many of you asked what kind of camera I got... it's a Panasonic Lumix)