04 June 2010

Behaviour Chart with Magnets and Rewards

Lately, our first-born daughter's been slipping into some bad behavioural patterns- you know the ones- whinging, back-talking, etc. Basically testing the boundaries every chance she gets; not unlike those pesky velociraptors in Jurassic Park. We want to nip this thing in the bud immediately- especially now that the twins are really starting to talk and copy EVERYTHING she does. We are instituting a behaviour chart really trying to focus on what she does right rather than concentrating on the negative. There are 24 spaces and every time we catch Abby doing something right, she will go and put a magnet on the chart. When she does something naughty, a magnet is taken away and an appropriate consequence assigned. When the chart is full, she can choose from a prize in the treasure box (an idea stolen from her Kindergarten teacher) which will consist of little toys/trinkets or an experience/reward coupon. To get everyone excited and motivated, Abby and I made the magnets together out of these clear, one-inch puffy stickers I've had forever, a 1 inch punch and some adhesive backed magnets. First, we scoured the internet for her favourite characters, cut and pasted them onto a word document and made them really small. A sample was printed in black and white and measured against the sticker. The sizes were adjusted and a color copy was printed on white card. Then, we punched out the images and attached the clear sticker with the sticky side facing the image leaving the protective top on so we wouldn't get fingerprints all over the sticker. Be sure to press hard everywhere to ensure a good bond. Affix the magnet to the back and that's all there is to it. I ran out of round magnets toward the end so I used some old phone book magnets, removing the top layer of paper and using the round punch; then glued it on the back of the imaged sticker. I hope that made sense, I think my vocabulary is failing me today! Here are the coupons I made to pad the treasure box- I seriously think she's more excited about the coupons than the toys. I tried to come up with some clever puns for the captions, but like I said; the brain was off duty. Any ideas? Look! She's already earned 3 magnets in as many days! I think this might just work! I know we'll have to re-think things when the other two get older, but for now... I'm optimistic!

3 comments:

  1. That is awesome Bethany! This is a great idea! Maybe I'll try it. Alison needs something like this I think! She is 3.

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  2. what a great idea! must be something to do with the age. sometimes we feel we have a 6 yr old going on 14.
    Sorry to hear about the Chrones. glad the steroids are helping... thinking of you... and all those children!! it's so good to have someone to relate to:-)
    Tish

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  3. p.s. you should check out my friend's craft blog... marthashmartha.blogspot.com
    check out her Harry Potter party.

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