On Saturday I had the privilege of working with Katy and Kaomi. First thing in the morning they decided to fight over a toy. I suggested to Kaomi that she wait her turn and play with it when Katy was done. I also told her that if they didn't play nicely I was going to put it away where no one would get to play with it. Within a few minutes they were screaming at each other and fighting. So I got to put the toy away and I decided that since they didn't want to play nicely together that they would work together for me for the day - no playing all day.
We got a lot done. They cleaned their room and I vacuumed it. They peeled crayons to make new crayons. Then they helped finish taking the ornaments off the Christmas tree so I could pack them up. I let them have a short break, by having Katy practice the piano and letting Kaomi sit quietly in a rocking chair. They also go to scrub the entry way floor, make my bed, fold lots of laundry and clean and vacuum the game room. In mid-afternoon I let them have quiet time in their beds, but they couldn't play or read books. Kaomi fell asleep so when Katy's quiet time was up I sent her to see if there was something that she could do to help Jeff. He set her to helping sweep the garage and work with Kent on the cardboard for recycling. They were tired by the end of the day and I hope that they learned a lesson, that it is better to work together and solve their own problems nicely than to have Mommy take away privileges.
Good job, Mommy! :-) It's hard to enforce those all day long consequences, but hopefully someday, the results will be worth it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Missy. It was hard to enforce for the whole day.
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