As you read in my post on Saturday, my kids were just horrible listeners. They drove me bananas to the point where I contemplated opening a second bottle of wine. I don’t know if it was just the dreary weather, too much birthday cake, or the lack of having Sam the Elf around, but they just weren’t listening. It had been escalating for a couple of weeks now, but Saturday they really broke me. I was fuming mad.
My husband decided to make a behavior chart just like they have in school. First thing first, my kids pride themselves on always being on green at school. We hear about it all of the time. So my husband made this great chart.
Green – good
Yellow – you’ve been warned
Red – lose a toy
And then he added something they don’t have at school…
Black – you can’t earn that toy back
So far, this method has worked out great. We have had just a couple of yellow incidents. Now that they know we are serious, I can just say the word “yellow” and they immediately correct their behavior. Monday morning was the first morning in a long time where the teeth were brushed, the shoes and coats were on, they grabbed their backpacks, and we were out the door on time without me having to shout 20 times to get ready. Bliss.
My kids have the color chart at school too and I have been tempted to try it at home since I am apparently no longer a scary authority figure in their eyes. This may motivate me to finally make one! 🙂
Glad to hear the chart is working so far!
I am using a different version for my younger kids and it definitely helps a lot. I love picking them up at daycare when they say “we don’t see them act like this at all when you’re not here….” I’m glad they behave with others but mommy could use an easy night too! 😉
Brilliant!! Now if your hubby can make us one, you can deliver it – I will give you wine or coffee…..or both
This looks like something I need for my 3 year old. She used to do ok with the 1, 2, 3…but hasn’t been recently…we just get to 3 & then time out a lot more. We might need something like this! Thanks for sharing!
It sounds like it’s working! This looks like a great method to keep them in line. I used charts when my kids were younger, and found they would totally work to improve their behavior.
I love to hear about different reward systems – I wrote about a couple I’ve used like the stones (which we’ve changed so many times over the years and it’s still working!) and paper chains. So many creative ideas that really can work wonders!
Amazing how little things can make big changes happen! I remember using stickers to reward good behavior when I was a camp counselor to 7-year-olds. I was amazed at what they would do for a sticker!