Daily discipline for boys

[av8rwyf]

I'm sure we've probably touched on this in the past but I need some creative ideas.

DS's are 5 and 3. DH and I have found ourselves constantly calling the kids on the "bad" behaviors, taking away things (toys, priviledges (sp?)), etc. We need to focus on the good things they do..especially with our 5 year old who started Kindergarten this year.

I need some creative, simple, and easy ways to visually show the boys they are being rewarded. I had a friend who used just marbles in a jar. For everything good she saw her kids doing, she put a marble in their jar. The one w/ the most marbles at the end of the day got a small reward or treat. I'm thinking of going w/ that but would love some other ideas too!

Thanks!

[ace12]

It's great that you want to start good habits early. I'm a 7th grade teacher and proud aunt of 6 nieces and nephews; in addition, I spent my teen years and twenties doing a lot of babysitting!

The marbles are a great visual. You can do a chart too with stickers or something similar (I'm sure that there's a local teacher supply story- rife with these types of classroom measurement charts). I would suggest that they can earn and lose points/marbles, etc. for certain behaviors- good and bad.

The biggest thing, which I'm sure that every parenting book on the planet says, is that it will only work when consistently and fairly implemented. Kids are geniuses and can figure out how to manipulate any system out there.

I don't think that I shared any new ideas, but, oh well. Good luck!

[rgphib]

My SIL has 2 boys- 1 and 3. When the 3 year old started acting up recently (jealous of baby brother) she started a "magnet" system. Everytime Cameron did something nice for his brother he would get a magnet (he would get one taken away if he did something not so nice). When he reached a certain number of magnets, he got to spend the day with grandma (the orginal idea was that grandma would take the baby for the day, but Cameron said he already spends time with mommy...he wanted to spend time with grandma).

It seems to be working pretty well with him. I'm sure you could easily manipulate it to fit your situation.

[Adreamer's_wfe]

I keep it simple and immediate- when one of the triplets is doing something I want the other two to do - TIC TAC! My kids will do anything for a TIC TAC. I keep it random too - if Cecelia makes her bed, TIC TAC, next time, the kids all have their beds made. Not crying in the van when we are packing everyone up, TIC TAC. I am sure you get the idea.

We were in the same position, felt like all we did was tell the kids they were naughty, and reinforcing negative behavior with attention. My new tatic is to put the naughty child in their room until they can calm down. The triplets room is pretty barren (it is a mutliple thing, you would be amazed what three minds can devise!)- anyway, I count to three, give him/her a chance to stop, and then off to bed. The time gets shorter and shorter each time, because they don't want to be up in their room all by themselves, so they get themselves under control.

Good luck.

[av8rwyf]

Thanks for the ideas...keep 'em coming though. Need to head to the local teacher's store too! Thanks ladies!

[POPPY]

We use popsicle sticks. My girls have little pockets wth their pictures on them with magnets on the back that hang on the fridge. They get sticks awarded to them for various things. They can trade a set number of sticks in for rewards like extra TV or computer time. Higher number of sticks gets them a trip to Chuck E Cheese or another fun place, or they can trade it in for money if they are saving for something special.

I have found when they grow used to one system, the novelty wears off, so I change and do a sticker chart or marbles or something else.

There is a book by Lisa Welchel (some of you may remember her from The Facts of Life) called Creative Corrections, I get a lot of my ideas from that book. I don't agree with all of her discipline suggestions, but it is a good book for different discipline ideas.