My newest addition to daily life.

I think I found this on Pinterest, after a particularly taxing day this summer. I feel summer is often hard if you don’t do home school year round, because the kids get so board with nothing to do. Idol hands make the devils work. One day when I was at the store (and we were already off to a rough start) the situation deteriorated, I wasn’t happy with my kids behavior and I felt I handled the situation poorly. I decided to make a change. Here is what I found.

Behavior chart with prize sheets.

This is my Behavior Chart and the Star Chart that goes with it. (I also keep some stickers handy)

Here they are on my wall at the top of the stairs. It’s easily accessible and not easy to forget about. My youngest son goes to his dads house regularly and when its just my oldest and I there is never a behavior problem, but when my youngest gets home from dads they both have to learn to get along all over again. Since there is only trouble when both my kids are together I made the “sticker chart” for only 4 days. The location of the clothes pins on the “good behavior” chart fluctuate throughout the day depending on how my boys are acting. At the end of each day we reflect on behavior and see where the clothes pins are on the chart. If they did good then they get a sticker on the “sticker chart“. After 4 days if all the stickers are filled they get to pick from the “prize cup“. (I put about 5 “star charts” up so I could just peal them off when I was done and have a new one underneath, instead of printing off one at a time, I’m all about convenience)

The Prize Cup

The Prize Cup is where you pick what you would like to do (if you got all your stickers). These are kids activities we can do any time of year and don’t cost any money. If there is something they really enjoy I’ll ad it to the cup. These should all be things you’re ok with doing as well. If you don’t want to put your coat on and go for a walk to the park in winter, maybe it shouldn’t be in the prize cup. 

Now I don’t know if boys behavior has changed much here in the first four days, (they are pretty good kids to start with) but I will say this chart system defiantly helps me keep cool. Nobody wants get upset when their kids misbehave and when you have a simple fair way of dealing with it, it helps everyone involved.