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Ladies, let me share this with you. In fact this is so helpful, consider it my Christmas 🎁 to you.
Want to know how to change your kids’ behavior without all of the yelling and getting upset?Get a sheet of paper, it doesn’t have to be fancy, and create 6 columns. The first column needs to be the widest because here is where you will write down all of the things you need your children to do to make your life (and theirs) easier. Write the days of the week at the top of the other 5 columns. I do Monday through Friday. Take a look at mine—its not very fancy 😊.
I create a separate chart like this for each of my oldest 3 children. I use a sticker or write a checkmark next to each task each child completes on their chart, and an “x” next to all incomplete tasks. When I give “x’s” I explain to my children why they did not earn a checkmark in those subjective areas such as Being Kind to Others. This helps them to know which behaviors are inappropriate or unacceptable so they can correct them.
Whomever has the most tick marks at the end of the week is my Student of the Week! We actually have a Student of the Week ceremony where I announce all of the attributes displayed by the Student of the Week then I announce the name of the winner. We all clap for the winner and then I top it off with this wonderful Student of the Week certificate! (I love the drama and my kids do too…we make it a big deal)
Okay. It doesn’t stop there. The Student of the Week gets a prize. We agree on the prize at the beginning of the week. My girls want an L.O.L. Surprise doll this week. Click on the link to see what that is: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BHQ135J/?tag=1207588532258-20. The beauty is that this doll costs only $10. Now ask yourself, “Would I pay $10 for harmony in my home?” Absolutely!
Ladies, change the prize each week to keep it interesting. Also, the prize does not have to be a toy–it could be a lunch date with you; a trip to the museum; or as simple as their favorite chocolate bar at the end of the week. You know your child best and what excites him/her. If you have older children with more expensive taste, you can extend the tick mark earning period from one week to a more suitable time frame.
If you have one child or you want to give all of your kids a chance to earn a prize you can set a certain number of tick marks that they need to earn in order to receive the prize. Rather than doing this, I give my kids something out of our Treasure Box if I want to reward them for doing something special in between our Student of the Week ceremonies.
Once your children get into the routine of doing the things you have on their charts, remove those items and add new ones. I used to have Brush Your Teeth and Take a Bath on my kids’ charts but they no longer need reminders to do these things so I’ve added other things.
Lastly ladies, you have to take this seriously if you want it to work. You have to manage this just as you would a task your boss gave you (see my Manage Your Home as You Would Your Job blog post). I update the tick marks once in the morning and again at night when my children go to bed. You have to do your tick-marking the same day because you will forget who earned what. I started my kids’ current Student of the Week charts on Monday of this week and by Thursday night, all of my children were in bed snoozing by 8:30pm. I am so happy about this! Give it time and it’ll work ladies.
Ladies leave me a comment after trying this for a couple of weeks and let me know how it’s working for you.
A Frantic Mom 💜