Proud moments!

OK, y'all know that Stacey and the boys came for a week long visit up here and if you've been following our activites on Facebook, you know that we've been really busy. In fact I think I might still be recovering from all the fun. But before I share all the fun, I have to share this story. I was cleaning up today from the visit. Cleaning sheets, vacumming, cleaning the bathroom, etc. As I was taking down the chart that I made especially for thier visit it hit me. This thing actually worked! Lemme give you the details.

Long before the visit I decided that I needed to set some "Aunt Cissy's House Rules" and go over them with the boys once they arrived. I knew that there might be some rules that I would have and enforce that Stacey might not have set up in their house, so I put together the chart. I get comments all the time like, "You don't have kids, you don't know what it's really like." Maybe not, but I do know one thing...Jo Frost. AKA-The Super Nanny! I love that show and think that she has no-nonsense advise and tips. I know that she is always talking about "Reward Charts". So I added rewards to my House Rules list and this is what I got: Pretty good kids. Perfect kids? Nah! Didn't think that would happen, but the rules stuck while they were here. That is all an Aunt Cissy can ask for!

Two of my big things were no screaming in the house and always do good towards the animals. In fact, screaming, for me, was an automatic time out. The first time Nicholas screamed just to scream Aunt Cissy said, "1-2-3, Time Out!" and pointed to the pre-determined mat. No fussing, Nico sat down and waited for his "release". Henry, got one too shortly after that. And if memory serves, I think Nico had zero more (in the house) and Henry only one more (in the house).
The rewards I set up were either very low or NO cost rewards like: help Uncle Charles with the burning barrel, help Aunt Cissy decorate the house for Halloween, take a hike to the wind turbines, star watching with Uncle Charles, make ice cream with Aunt Cissy, game night, you-pick-dinner night or the very popular cash to spend at the candy store. Actually the most popular reward was the burning barrel. Charles didn't believe me beforehand, but I was right! They both picked that one first! Too funny!
So the rewards were for excellent behavior and/or extra help around the house. Nico figured this out right away and whenever I called out, "Who wants to help Aunt Cissy?" he was right there saying, "ME!" Every time I loaded or unloaded the dishwasher he was there. Whenever I had stuff to put away he was there. Whenever I had a house chore to do he was there. So he earned more rewards than Henry who was way more interested in video games or cartoons than helping out! But Nico sure "got it"!
On outings they were reminded about earning rewards and mostly would modify behavior to work on those rewards. Both of them lost and then re-earned a reward when they were pretty bad on an outing, but all-in-all, I am pretty proud to say that it worked!

What I learned: House Rules are very important, but consistency and follow through are key. Reward Charts are very useful tools. But, note to self, make sure that you create and set up "Car Rules". D'oh!