Summer Holidays have started for us and already the “What can I do?”, “I’m bored!”, and complaining about doing daily responsibilities has started. Kids love the routine of school and although I like a bit of a lax feeling in summer, some routine is necessary. So, I went into teacher mode and put a few things into place:
#1 Chore Chart
I’ve revised our old chart to add a few more age appropriate responsibilities, as well as a sticker chart to go with it. Olivia’s always been pretty motivated by her chore chart and is loving the addition of a sticker chart:
#2 The ‘I’m Bored’ Cheat Sheets
I’ve made up three pictorial sheets of ideas of things Olivia can do when she’s bored:
Ideas for inside (independent)
Ideas for outside (independent)
Ideas of things we can do together (special outings):
3. Behaviour Chart
Olivia’s a good kid, a normal kid, so that means with the cute, fun, spunkiness that’s her, also comes some whining and complaining and defiance. It can get exhausting, so we’ve spent some time talking about appropriate behaviour, voice tone, and obedience. Then we sat down, made some consequences, rewards and special prizes:
The day (clothespin) starts on the white paper and can move down (consequences) or up (reward) throughout the day. She receives the consequence immediately, but the “prize” the next day since the clothespin can move up and down until after bedtime. We made a list of “prizes” and she chose her six favourites that we put across the top of the chart. Each morning we move that clothespin to the “prize” she’d like to work towards. Some ideas on our list to choose from were:
-boating
-fishing
-wrestle with daddy
-ice cream or mozza sticks
-dollar store toy
-splash park
-swim at Aunt Ren and Uncle Kenny’s
-beach
-animal farm
-craft
(I’m no artist. Excuse the poor illustrations😂)
The consequences we chose together are:
Warning
Time out (4min–her age)
No iPad or tv
Go to bed early
The rewards we chose together are:
Sticker
Treat
Read 3 books at bedtime (instead of 1)
Prize
So far it’s worked amazingly. We are only on day three. We made sure she got to “prize” on day one and made a huge deal of it. Day two she ended the day on “warning” which motivated her to do better today and she ended on “prize” again. She’s excited to wrestle with Daddy tomorrow. What I live about this is that there’s no power struggle. The power is in the “clothespin”–ha. The only trick is being consistent. It wouldn’t work without consistency.
What are you planning to help keep your summer going smoothly?
Living in the Moment 