Creed has followed my example and is not so great about picking up after himself so a few weeks ago we decided to work on it. This also started because he's had a serious case of "I WANT THAT!" when shopping lately. Truthfully, he usually wants things that I wouldn't mind buying for him, but I don't want him to get into the habit of thinking he can get whatever he wants when we're shopping. I started talking to him about how if he REALLY wants something, he can earn it, but it's not so easy to come up with ways for a three-year-old to earn things.
We finally decided that if he cleaned his room for seven days, he could earn the set of cleaning toys that he really wanted (how ironic that he desperately wanted toys to pretend to clean, but he didn't want to actually clean).
So for seven days, he picked up his toys
He made his bed (ish, he's three after all)
and he got a smiley face on his chart (which we started on the third day after he kept asking where his chart was, thus the ugly, improvised chart)
And he FINALLY earned his cleaning toys.
How do you do chores at your house? How do you teach your children to earn things? I feel like quite a novice in this area. It's not time to start an allowance, is it?
He made his bed (ish, he's three after all)
and he got a smiley face on his chart (which we started on the third day after he kept asking where his chart was, thus the ugly, improvised chart)
And he FINALLY earned his cleaning toys.
How do you do chores at your house? How do you teach your children to earn things? I feel like quite a novice in this area. It's not time to start an allowance, is it?
Hi Steph,
ReplyDeleteVictoria is the same age as Creed and it seems like she wants everything she sees in shops as well, but I just tell her "no" he, he, he, mean person, I know. I don't think what you did is bribery, I agree that it's earning, after all, when we have a job and we work, we earn a salary at the end of a certain period, don't we? This is in my mind a lot lately as well, because when she does something wrong, we are quick to say "You won't get this because you've been naughty", but we should do the opposite as well and teach her that when she is good, besides all the good praise she gets anyways, she can get a little prize as well :-)
I think you did the right thing :-)
Flav
Heh. ;) What just drew my attention, is that the tiny cleaning set that can be seen in the last pic is Dutch or German, ain't it? :) What language is the label of the little air freshener in? Just being curious... ;)
ReplyDeleteI think that's great! I wish I were that organized and thoughtful about Christmas shopping :)
ReplyDelete