Behavior Chart

Our chart:

The levels of reward are from small to large. The red consequences start light and progress to harsher consequences. I don't use the word "Time-Out" anymore, I say "Thinking Time." Our rewards that are along the side are when he reaches the very top. The photos are of some of his favorite things: Subway, the park, McDonald's and chocolate milk with a donut. 

We started a behavior chart awhile back because our 4 year old wasn't listening very well, disobeying, not sharing, back talking, not picking up after himself, etc. Time out wasn't working anymore. I also tried a reward jar technique but that didn't last long. I didn't know what to do or if this would work but here are the charts I came across and took ideas from each one. The first chart was the formula I followed. I took the reward and consequence ideas that I liked from the first two. I liked the idea of the green for good behavior and red for bad from the third chart. I did not want yellow as I included the warning in the red. I then picked rewards that I knew D would be interested in and hoped and prayed this would work. The first link one explains how it works really well. We start in the middle of the green and red. When D does something good: Shares, obeys, cleans up after himself, does homework, etc he goes up one. When we first started we'd make a big deal about him going up one and I always ask him WHY he's gone up or down so he understands. By the end of the night which ever green one he's on he receives that reward the FOLLOWING day. If he lands in red he receives that consequence right away. I focused only on a couple things at first so as not to confuse him or overwhelm anyone. The first little bit he went up and down FREQUENTLY. Now he hardly goes down if at all. If anything he gets really upset if he even gets WARNING. He goes up more and more. I don't reward him now for always sharing, or always listening, etc. I want him to do it to do it, not just to be rewarded. However, from time to time I randomly reward him for anything good he does. I can honestly say this worked! He's a completely different child. The only thing I can say we need more work on is the picking up after himself. He gets distracted easily. 

The Fun, Cheap, or Free Queen

The Tanuz Life

Show Tell Share

Indoor Treasure Hunt

Items Needed:
Small toys or snacks
Treasure map (optional)

by Real Treasure Hunts

Think back to when you were a child and searched for Easter eggs on Easter. That was always fun and exciting to me. Having a treasure hunt just because sounds like a big hit! Hide several small toys, books, or special snacks around the house. Give your child clues or draw a map that leads to the treasure.

Source: The Preschooler's Busy Book

This would be fun for moments such as: New Years Eve- Make it a tradition by counting down the hours to the new year. Valentines Day- Make a stash of hearts with reasons you love your child. St Patricks Day- Hide what the Leprechauns left behind. Easter- Hide eggs with candy, little toys, or coins inside. Even could hide the Easter Basket. May/June- Out of school- Hide a large basket full of fun Summer ideas. August/September- Back to school- Hide a large basket full of school goodies. October- Hide their buckets that they use to go trick or treating with their costume inside. Thanksgiving- Hide some leaves and you could write on them what you're thankful for. December- Hide their stocking with it full of stocking stuffers, have a basket delivered to your front door from the Pajama Elf, etc.  

Play with Boxes

Items Needed:
Cardboard boxes of various sizes.

Collect super market boxes and play Grocery Store or House

by No Time for Flashcards

Make a train

I LOVE this one made with diaper boxes by Kooz Top 5

Make a Fort include animals by Songbirds and Buttons 

Place your child in a huge box and they can color the inside. This one was just floating around Pinterest with no source.

Build a dollhouse out of shoe boxes by Little House in Hillsboro

Create a car by Fun Family Crafts

I cannot wait to do all these with my boys and post our own photos!

Source: The Preschooler's Busy Book

Motivational Monday

Music, Dance, Drama and More

Tambourine

Basket Toss

Items Needed:
Wiffle balls or Wiffle golf balls, bean bags, playground ball (We chose Wiffle balls)
Bowl
Laundry basket


Place Wiffle balls in a bowl and place the basket on the side propped up with a pillow or books to tilt it a little. Give a quick demonstration. I chose to do the basket toss. You could also have your child roll them in the basket like soccer and a goal, or you could bounce a play ground ball into the basket. Many options to choose from!

This kept my oldest son entertained but my little one could care less after 5 min. He'd throw them all in the gather them all up again. Super handy to have the bowl (a colander from their kitchen tools) near.

Source: Unplugged Play

Library

I have a confession. I'm addicted to children's books. Whenever we go to the library which has been every two weeks I always pick out more books then my boys. I love reading to my boys, it's such a great way to bond with them and it builds their imaginations. I swear their imaginations have growth exponentially just by simply reading to them. Not only that but it builds their vocabularies. You want to have a child that enjoys reading when they grow up? READ TO THEM. I can't stress that enough.

Here's some statistics about reading:

Parents are key reading role models. High frequency reading parents are six times more likely to have high frequency reading kids.  (2008 Kids & Family Reading Report)

Every school day in America, 3,000 students drop out -- the majority of them are poor readers. Students with below grade level reading skills are twice as likely to drop out of school as those who can read on or above grade level. (Adolescent Literacy: A National Reading Crisis)

The performance advantage among students whose parents read to them in their early school years is evident regardless of the family's socio-economic background. 
( Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) )

Children who grow up in homes where books are plentiful go further in school than those who don't. Children with low-education families can do as well as children with high-education families if they have access to books at home. (Family scholarly culture and educational success: Books and schooling in 27 nations 2010 )

When children are provided with 10 to 20 self-selected children's books at the end of the regular school year, as many as 50 percent not only maintain their skills, but actually make reading gains. (Bridging the Summer Reading Gap, by Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington)

Students who read widely and frequently are higher achievers than students who read rarely and narrowly. (Scholastic: Classroom Libraries Work!)

Children learn an average of 4,000 to 12,000 new words each year as a result of book reading. (Scholastic: Classroom Libraries Work!)

Children in classrooms without literature collections read 50% less than children in classrooms with such collections. (International Reading Association)



Source: Scholastic Website

Visit at Bampa's and Yia Yia's

My in-laws moved so we decided to go see their new home up in Hooper while we were in UT visiting. They have a huge yard (an acre), chickens, two dogs, two bunnies, and will be getting two alpacas. 

Bampa giving them a ride on his new Father's Day gift! They loved it!

Forth of July 2013

We had fireworks at my sister's house with Bampa and Gma. T isn't afraid of anything and he loved the sparklers...

D didn't want anything to do with them at first but eventually he liked them too.

Watching the street ones go off. The neighbors also had the aerial ones so that was fun to look all about the neighborhood and see different shows going off. 

Pom Poms and Cardboard Tubes

I saw this floating around Pinterest and wanted to try it...

By how we montessori

It's intended for Toddlers to develop fine motor skills but it kept my Preschooler busy longer.

Here's an alternative to pom poms as well.

Fourth of July in June!

This year we knew we'd be in UT for the Fourth of July so prior to our trip we had a Fourth of July weekend in June. 

Here we made Smore's on our grill. We don't have a pit. :( One of many items to have in our dream home.

June 22, 2013

Also made some Poor man cookies.

Just need white frosting, food coloring and graham crackers. 

Put red, and blue in a separate container and set a plate out to put your assembled cookies on. 

June 23, 2013

The boys didn't eat as many as I thought they would but it was still fun.

Funny Things Kids Say...

I was telling D how well he took his nap today. 

D: I'm not going to break the house rules anymore. I'm going to put them back together how they were.

Summer Bucket List 2013

SUMMER BUCKET LIST 2013

Visit Sea World

Swim Lessons

Pool Party

Eat a Popsicle

Lunch with Daddy

See Fireworks

Make Fourth of July poor man cookies

Make Fourth of July Craft

Make S'mores

Go to the Splash Park

See a Movie

Feed the Ducks

Visit the Library

Summer Reading Program

Try to Ride Bike (without training wheels)

Bowl

Play at the Park

Build a Fort

Celebrate Father's Day

List things you Love about Daddy

Answer Questionnaire about Daddy

Make Rice Crispy Treats

Play Uno

Pool Party!

D got invited to his friend Sophia's birthday party and she just so happened to have it at the pool! He had so much fun that he's was upset that we had to leave when the pool was closing. He's usually afraid of water but seeing all the other children having fun made him want to even want to get into the big pool. Unfortunately I wasn't comfortable with that seeing as how I didn't think he'd want to get in the big pool originally so I didn't pack a suit. :( I want to also get him swim lessons this year but they are having them during our trip to UT. Hoping for next year!

Wish I would've snapped more photos of the party!

Funny Things Kid Say...

Daeton was looking for his goggles for show and tell. 

D: Baby was playing with my goggles and I can't find them. 
Me: I know where they are. I'll go get them. 
D: Thanks, Mom. I knew I could count on you. 
Me:  Aww! That was so sweet!!!
D: *embarrassed* Ahh. Why do you talk like that?

Evening Routine Chart

I put together a routine chart for D because he likes to ask me what comes next so I thought it'd be fun to put pictures with what we're always doing.

First we have baths...

Then we get dressed...

 We get our giggles out...

We read stories...

Brush teeth...

Then we turn on some lullabies, snuggle, give kisses, and say goodnight.

I can't say how much having a routine has helped my family out. It makes it so much easier for everyone. My boys never fuss about going to bed or get out of bed 20 times. 

SeaWorld San Diego!

This Memorial Day we decided to visit Sea World. My boys had never been and I had such a blast the 1st time I'd ever been. I even got a caricature done (something on my Bucket List). Anyway we live about 3 hours from San Diego so by the time we arrived it was just opening and the boys were already getting cranky. We first came to Sesame Street Bay of Play because it's nearest the entrance and the boys wanted to get on the Elmo ride.

Wish we could've gotten pictures of Talon but he was with me and as you can see I had the camera. They wanted to keep riding this ride but I talked them into seeing the animals. 

From there we ventured to Blue Horizons to see the Dolphins and the birds. It started at 10:30

The boys also saw a Turtle on the way to Pets Rule!

Pets Rule! show... It started at 11:30

By this time T was getting very grumpy. He was tired and it was hot. We all got sunburned but not too bad. I thought this show was really cute though and glad we got to see it. There were all sorts of animals from cats and dogs to birds, a pig, and ostriches. They had the olympics where two dogs raced through an obstacle course one at a time (a big one and a little one). They had to shimmy through the fire hydrants, duck under a plank and walk under it, jump through hoops and swim across the water. The little dog jumped in the boat but the big dog just jumped in and swam/walked/jumped across it. Then to top it off the pig came out and did it too!! Instead of jumping the hoops he barreled through them and went around the pool. Too cute.  

There was also a skit where this black dog had a date with the white one. He had to "clean up" the place and get it ready. He put something in the trash can by stepping on the lever at the bottom to open the lid, switched the radio on by jumping on the knob and pushing it to turn it, picked a bone from the fridge AND closed it again and even put the flower in his mouth to give to her when she arrived. So cute! I couldn't get enough.

From there we went to the Wild Arctic area to pass time until Shamu's show.

Afterwards we headed to One Ocean at Shamu Stadium. This show started at 1:00.

Where they were splashing everyone.

We decided after this show that the boys just weren't going to make it any longer and I was extremely bummed. I had so much planned and even wanted to get another caricature done of T. D already has one. If I could do this all over again I'd take a couple days or even get a hotel room although we live here. It was just too much in one day for my little guys.