Charts

I made a chore chart of sorts this morning while the kids finished breakfast. We still don't have a printer, so I had to do my own with a ruler, paper, and permanent pen. Not that I minded. I love charts and have since I was a kid. Anyway, the kids were excited and jobs got done without griping today. That made me feel like super-benevolent (sp?)-mom and I was able to have fun with them for the rest of the morning. Their squabbles seemed fewer, but maybe it's because I was so relaxed, it didn't grate on me like it normally would. I've been meaning to make one of these charts for about 3 or 4 months now, but seem to have trouble geting around to things like that. Something else I started, trying to train them to put their p.j.'s "in the drawer and not on the floor" is that if they leave them on the floor, they get no juice with breakfast, just water. Boy those bedrooms looked nice this morning! Another area that became a source of Sunday irritation was church clothes on the floor. Camie (nearly 5) and Felicity (3) know how to change into playclothes as soon as we get home from church. I remind them, and remind them to put their clothes on their beds or hang them on their shelf knobs so I can put them in the closet later. Camie had gotten pretty good about doing it, but Felicity apparently lived in a fairytale world where little elves came and did it for her because when I would ask her where she put her clothes, she's say "on my bed." Lo and behold, when I would go in their rooms after lunch, the elves had turned out to be imps and had tossed the dress and stockings on the floor. After weeks (months?) of this, it dawned on me yesterday after another occurance of scattered clothes that a little candy incentive was in order. Camie got a piece of chocolate for doing it right. Lissy ended up with a switching for a dramatic wailing of "I want cannnnnddddyyyyyy" while still in her room. She's a fast learner (and probably thankful we go to two services on Sundays). Last night after church she did it right and was so excited about her piece of candy. The moral to the story: Sometimes the answer if pretty simple for preschoolers. And candy is such a great incentive.