My two oldest are getting to an age where taking care of themselves and their actions are necessary. The problem is keeping them on task. Some days they are great, but most days they “forget”. I discussed with my husband our expectations of the boys given their ages and we rolled them out. The best thing we did was purchase a responsibility chart. The boys immediately wanted to earn the smilies to prove they were taking it seriously. We promised them attainable prizes for keeping on track. We were also very firm that they had to be on the right track for one whole week. Little did we know that a whole week was hard, and still is. We’re getting there.
For our almost 6 year old we made getting dressed a responsibility. He doesn’t wake up well in the morning. We have to constantly prod him to get ready for school. Making it a responsibility with the possibility of not earning a smiley was what got him to actually take getting dressed in the morning seriously. For our 4 year old we made not hitting a responsibility. I think since becoming a middle child he has been having a little bit of a problem with hitting. For us not only was age a factor in choosing the responsibilities, but personality was a bigger factor.
I admit that we have gotten lax as of late, but when spring break is over, we will be getting back on track with their responsibility charts.
If you have children ages 3 – 12 getting the Melissa and Doug Responsibility Chart will give them a visual to what is considered good behavior.
We have one of these and my son really loves it, but he gets extremely upset if he isn’t able to fill in all of the spots. I think I may need to cover up the days of the week and just use it so that he gets his reward whenever he fills up a row.