Bedtime Charts

Speaking of things that I say over and over and over again, bedtime has its own set of phrases:

"Have you brushed your teeth yet?"
"What are you supposed to be doing?"
"Why are you dancing around the living room right now?"
"Did you put your dirty clothes in the laundry?"
"No, you can't have a snack now, you just brushed your teeth."
"What could you do next?"

repeated over and over multiple times to multiple children.  Sometimes it can be pure chaos figuring out who has done what, what they are supposed to be doing, and how on earth to get them all to bed in a timely manner.  My husband has been calling it "herding cats" because its that easy.  ;)

For some reason, even though we have a fairly set routine, my children often forget what they need to do.  They seemed to be under the impression that I should personally come to each of them and tell them what to do, every step along the way.  If they had pajamas on, it certainly wouldn't cross their mind to go potty, because I hadn't told them to do that yet.

Enter, the bedtime chart:

I listed out the steps that we go through to get ready for bed: pick up toys, put on pajamas, snack, go potty, brush teeth, story time, goodnight.  Each of the three girls has a laminated chart with a clip.  The clip has their initial on it, and is moved down the list as they complete each task.

When I first created the charts they were very excited to use them.  I saw a huge improvement in their staying on task.  We do not currently remember to use them every night, but the effects have lasted.  They have a better idea of what needs to be done before bed and still enjoy running to find their charts when I suggest it.  Two thumbs up for a good idea!

Teaching Better Table Manners

I say the same three or four things over and over and over and over again each meal.

"Sit down."
"Take a bite."
"Lean forward."
repeat ad nauseam and occasionally throw in:
"No singing at the table, you're supposed to be eating."

One day I decided to put five pennies in front of each child's place.  I asked them what sort of things I have to tell them at the table.  They easily chanted off everything I repeat over and over at each meal, proving that they are listening to me, just not obeying all the time.  I told them that if I had to tell them something like that, I would remove a penny.  At the end of the meal, whatever pennies they had left would be theirs to keep.

We've done this a couple different times and had good success with it.  Tonight Lucy ate her meal in record time and cleared her plate and cup without being told!  (She's usually the one I have to remind to "Take a bite.")  Who knew would only take 15 cents for three better behaved children at the table?  If they get tired of the pennies, maybe I'll use chocolate chips occasionally.  This is actually a great motivator for me to keep my mouth shut too and not just repeat my phrases unless really necessary, because then I have to take a penny from them.

Do you have any fun ideas for encouraging better behavior?  We need to work on our bedtime routine and behavior too...

Thanksgiving Tree

Its time to put up our yearly Thanksgiving Tree.  I laminated the tree trunk from last year so that we could use it again.  This time the tree is located on our bedroom door, along with some Indians that we made earlier this week.

To fill out our tree with leaves, every day each member of the family gets to say one thing that they are thankful for and write it on a leaf.  It is so much fun to see our tree fill up with leaves throughout the month.  I've saved leaves from previous years (just tucked them in a plastic bag), those are fun to go back and read.  We put our tree up in early November and work on it until Thanksgiving Day.

So far Daddy is thankful for our home, Mommy is thankful for family, Lucy is thankful for Julia, and Julia is thankful for Darla (her gymnastics teacher).

Do you have any fun Thanksgiving traditions?

linked to Gratituesday

Three Year Olds

Anyone else have a hard-to-handle three year old?  Julia is a pretty intense kid, and has been particularly challenging lately.  Here are a few of the things we are trying and some books I am reading.  I'd love any ideas you have to share as well!

Kid Cooperation - This is a great book that I picked up from our LLL library.  I love that Elizabeth Pantley doesn't try to push a rigid "method" but gives lots of tips, support, and things to keep in mind.  She comes from an attachment parenting perspective and is easy to read.  The book has plenty of examples and real life situations, which I find really helps me.  I'm actually not finished reading this book yet, but Ross and I are reading it together and discussing it as we go.  It really helps to talk things through with him and come up with a game plan.

(Elizabeth Pantley also has a newer book called The No-Cry Discipline Solution.  It contains much of the same information, and I will probably read through that one as well.  I do find that I like the layout of Kid Cooperation much better though.)

Adventures In Gentle Discipline - I am still in the middle of reading this one as well.  It is a larger volume, but easy to read.  It contains lots of quotes from mothers and real life stories.

Sensory Parenting - I actually received this book from the author for review.  It is interesting to read and think about all of the sensory input that might be affecting a child.  This is a comprehensive book with information on all aspects of parenting as relates to a child with a sensory disorder.  I thought the book had a lot of extraneous advice and could have been narrowed down.  Chapters 7 and 8 on evaluating your child's senses and therapies for the senses were the most interesting.  In the author's defense, sensory parenting is a huge topic - kudos to them for trying to tackle it!  Sensory Parenting is an interesting read.

We recently took Julia to the chiropractor/ kinesiologist that our family sees.  He did a very gentle adjustment on her and suggested some specific vitamins.  We discussed nutrition, focusing on feeding Julia food other than carbohydrates and working on keeping her blood sugar stable.  She has actually been somewhat better since our visit.  I am doing my best to keep our family's nutrition top notch right now and hoping that will help ...along with plenty of patience.  ;)

Do you have a challenging little one?  Any tips to share?