
Is your little prince or princess perfect? Life is not always perfect here at Primaprincessa.comI knew I was in trouble when, at the grocery store with one of my little darlings; I refused to let him have a pack of gum. A level 4 tantrum of hurricane magnitude occurred. Arms flailing around, screams filled with spit and froth spewing from his mouth. The entire store screeched to a dead halt, all eyes were on us as I, in slow motion, tried desperately to reach him before he could pull the entire candy stand by the cash register down. Too late. Gum and chocolate bars everywhere, and only the quiet rolling sound of a single pack of life-saves could be heard amongst the throngs of horrified shoppers staring right at me! All right, all right, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but it sure felt like all that happened when I just could not get my kid to stop screaming.
We came home and I knew we had to make a change. I took a tip from my son's Kindergarten teacher Mrs. McKnight, and we created the “Cards”. We have used the Cards on our children who range from 3 to 8 years of age (the older the child the quicker the success). Anyone tells you that a 3 year old can not understand discipline or the consequence of their actions is in my humble opinion dead wrong.
Anyhow, what are the cards? Well, first you take a piece of 8 ½ x 11 paper, and draw a grid with six squares going across and six up and down, 36 total for you math wiz’s. Then you buy a whole bunch of really fun stickers. Each kid then gets their own card with 36 squares on it, and then colors their own individualized card.
Now comes the fun part. The title on top is “Acts of Kindness Card”. Each time your little princess does an act of kindness they receive a sticker. When the entire grid is full they get a small yet meaningful prize, like a pack of baseball cards, squishy gooey slimy rubber insect that sticks to the ceiling and leaves a permanent mark, or a new pack of their favorite bubble gum, which by the way also leaves a permanent mark when stuck to the ceiling.
The wonder of the “Acts of Kindness Cards” is that you can tailor it to the issue of the moment. If your kids just will not clean up after themselves, leaves toys all over the place, etc. then give them cleanliness as their focus. If one child has a tendency to be really mean to one of your kids, then explain to them that for every nice thing they do or say to their sibling they get a sticker. If they behave in a kind way, give ‘em a hug and then a sticker. Usually after a week or two of one focus we switch to something else so that their actions remain sincere and the goals are achievable.
Remember never ever take away stickers that have been previously earned. That type of negativity will sabotage any progress that you make. They will not always do the right thing, and you just gotta go with the flow and keep working towards improvement, not perfection. To this day, 4 years later, from time to time as a family we do “The Cards”. Actually, when things start getting out of hand, my kids are the first ones who ask for them!
-Stephanie- ballerina de jour
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