Play and Learn with Mama: Disney's Cars Theme - Reward chart

   My three-and-a-half year old daughter is a very...umm...let's call it enthusiatic eater... Which is my euphemistic attempt at saying that the girl just really struggles with table manners!! She loves her food and has a wonderful appetite, but oh, to get her to eat with her mouth closed... to not talk with a mouth full of food... to keep those little elbows off the table!! It's giving this fairly blonde Mama some proverbial grey hairs!!

   So as part of our Cars themed week I made her this reward chart. A magazine picture of Lightning McQueen was laminated and glued onto a wooden clothes peg, and for every meal that she consumed in a civilized fashion, she could move him up one mark closer to the 'Piston Cup.'  The reward was going to the supermarket with her dad to pick out a  Cars puzzle. It worked very well, and we are now into our second week of using it - this time the reward will be a Daddy-and-Daughter outing, probably to her favourite park. Making it fun to get things done!!

Making it Fun to Get Things Done: Morning and Evening High Fives!

 

With the birth of our third baby about eight weeks away, this Mama is going into overdrive to get everything ready to ensure a smooth transition to becoming a family of five. One of the most pressing things for me is to get Sweetpea and ArrowBoy a little more motivated to help with getting ready for the day, and for bedtime. They are quite capable of doing quite a bit around the house already, and thrive on routine, but I thought a little encouragement might go a long way to help me cope with things once the littlest one arrives.

  I recently saw a cute idea on Pinterest for creating a morning and evening 'High Five' chart and visited the blog where it originated,  called  Life as a Mom. You can read about their system for getting things done, and see her  High Five charts, here!

   I adapted ours a little according to things my children are capable of and familiar with doing every morning and evening. Actually, mornings around here go pretty smoothly, except maybe for an occasional clash of wills between myself and Sweetpea when it comes to choice of outfit! Evening routines are also pretty set and the children are comfortable with it, but I inevitably end up exhausted from cleaning up their books and toys after they've gone to bed. That has got to change!! So, two of our evening High Five fingers will hopefully remind me to get them started on clearing away their things before supper!

  I didn't glue down the fingers on our charts, as I thought it would be fun for the little ones to 'unfold' the High Fives as they get things done. I also used visual clues for my little non-readers so that they don't need to have to ask what comes next. I only included the things they do on their own. Fixing them breakfast or putting them to bed with a story, are things I do for them, so they are not part of our charts.

Our Morning High Five goes as follows:
1. Go to the Toilet
2. Get dressed and put away pyjamas
3. Make bed
4. Wash face and brush teeth
5. Brush hair

Our Evening High Five goes as follows:
1. Put away books
2. Put away toys
3. Take a bath
4. Brush teeth
5. Brush hair

   And can I confess a little something here? I actually really enjoy coming up with all kinds of nifty little ways to encourage my troop. Watch this space for more ideas of how I'd like to set my children up for success, and make it fun to get things done!