Our first sticker chart

We have been working on obedience with Summer lately....

Paul and I ran up against a wall this weekend, where defiance seemed to be rampant, and time after time Summer would disobey and enjoy seeing what negative consequences would ensue.  One evening Paul and I sat down and made a new plan.....instead of ONLY having negative consequences for disobeying, we would try adding positive consequences for obeying.

While I have always disliked sticker charts (I find them lots of work, I don't want my kids to always look for a reward when they do something right, and they seem to peter out, etc....) I decided to give one a try.

Here is how our sticker chart works:
Each time Summer chooses to say "Yes Mommy" or "Yes Daddy" and be obedient, (when she normally would say "no") she gets a sticker.  We keep the sticker chart and stickers on the fridge, and after she picks one out and puts it on the chart, we sing the "obedience" song and dance around the kitchen. (She loves it :-) ... especially the dancing/singing part!).

While we used to watch a DVD (veggie tales or Baby Einstein) once every few days, now DVD's are a reward only....when she gets 20 stickers, she gets to pick a DVD to watch. (It is good practice in counting to count our stickers every time we put one on and watching a DVD is motivation for her to get 20 stickers!) 

I have noticed a dramatic increase in obedience and a dramatic decrease in negative punishments (which still do occur, but much less frequently as she is "choosing good behavior" instead.)  I really like that I can "head off" a potential battle by prefacing a request by saying, "Summer, here is a chance for you to earn a sticker!  If you say "yes, mommy" when mommy says its time for you to change your diaper, you get a sticker.  If you say no, you will get a time-out.  Think about what you will say."  Then I make my request :-)

Today she earned her first DVD by getting her 20th sticker.  It was cute to watch her face as she called daddy at work to tell him the good news :-) 

Here is a little video of her introducing the sticker chart.  The song we sing when we put stickers on the chart is  Steve Green's song of  Ephesians 6:1-3, so that is the verse she is quoting :-).

A few updates

Lest I forget....here are a few updates....

-Colton is officially weaned!  He is loving solid foods and eats 3 meals a day with no snacks or nursings in between.

-The kids are (finally!!!!) napping at the same time in the afternoon!  (They used tag team...Colton 12pm-2pm, Summer 2pm-4pm, Colton 4pm-6pm).  Now they both go down around 2 pm.  That gives me a good hour every day to tutor or have time to myself, and it is AMAZING!

-We are in the midst of a battle of the wills in "Operation Picky" at our house.  In the past, we told Summer that if she didn't like her dinner, she had to eat one bite of whatever was in front of her, and then sit with everyone until everyone else was done, and she didn't get anything else to eat.  She did well with that, but we fell into a pattern of her tanking at lunch (because she loves PBJ, etc) and then choosing not to eat her dinner.  So our new strategy is that whatever was for dinner the previous night, if not eaten, reappears at lunch the next day.  It is working quite well :-).

Summer in the Kitchen

While it is winter outside, Summer is in the Tommerdahl kitchen :-).  We girls have been baking and cooking and learning all sorts of things about following a recipe, what "half" means, and so much more!  Here are the cupcakes she made before we frosted them:

 This morning we made lasagna together.  I had a bunch of pre-browned ground beef in the freezer, so when we used noodles that don't need to be precooked, Summer could do almost everything by herself.  Here is her "how to make lasagna" video.  I think she is just about ready to air on Food Network ;)