With so much indoor play, and so little space in our apartment, Evelyn and Dane have had a difficult time getting along lately. Everything from teasing, to screaming, to hitting, to pinching… and I could go on, but I’ll stop! I decided to take matters into my own hands with a little positive and negative reinforcement.
We discussed respect and keeping our hands to ourselves at family home evening last week and then as a family decided that if the kids were able to talk out their problems rather than hit or push, etc. they would earn a little hand with their initial on it—and with ten hands, they earned a special date with mom or dad. The hands have worked so well that I decided to tackle another issue--- that of selective listening, aka disobedience; another huge problem around here!
This technique was more of a negative reinforcement strategy. Evy and Dane start the day with 10 pieces of M&M’s in their cups—and each time one disobeys, I take away one M&M. Sometimes I just pop the M&M right into my mouth. You should see the looks of horror on their little faces! At the end of the day, they are able to eat the M&M’s that are left in their individual cups. It has worked wonders! All I have to do is threaten losing a candy and they shape up immediately. Cathy nicknamed the strategy- Operation Chocolate.
These few techniques have allowed our home to be so much more peaceful this week and I’m hoping it lasts! We’ve had fun celebrating winter by assembling popcorn snowmen (family fun), creating paper snowflakes, and then of course eating our favorite treat any season of the year--- chocolate dipped—you name it! Bananas, oreos, and lately we’ve been dipping pretzels. Any wonder why I’m not losing this baby weight?
