something you might want to try

It's summer! Wahoo! Too bad I'm already complaining about the heat, I need to work on that because I will miss it when its gone (next week probably). We have had a gorgeous first week of summer. You should see my tan! Since it is summer my preschooler is home ALL DAY LONG and you what that means for him and his little brother-more time to fight and argue and cause problems. So, with that in mind, having a plan before things get out of hand, I instigated to new system. The smiley face system. This is how is works: a smiley face is given for good behavior, playing nice, sharing, clearing table, using good manners, having a dry pull-up, pretty much one can be given for anything I want. A frown face is given for the exact opposite. Pretty simple. I am in charge of giving the faces, I can decide when and when not to give them. Sometimes they just have to do things because I said so and no smiley face is given. At the end of the day every frown face cancels out a smiley face and if there are 5 or more smiley faces earned, a smiley face sucker is the reward. So far so good. Nolan (the almost 3 year old is the problem child, he didn't earn a sucker on Thursday and near went crazy on me, hopefully he learned a lesson). You might want to try something like this, make it your own. Your kids could earn different items work different number amounts of smiley faces or a non-food item, etc. Make it your own to work for your family. I like it because it is easy. Oh, and we start new every day faces don't carry over and I keep track while we are out and put them on the paper when we get back. I also think it is helpful for the boys to see me put the faces on the paper and be reminded of why they get each one. That's all. Happy summer, I feel like I am melting.

at the end of day one

the coveted prize

my boys enjoying their reward