A Few Little Changes

Kaleb has had a rough year at preschool...to say the least. He had a lot of things going on that were new and he had to learn how to adjust. I'm not making excuses for the bad behavior my child had over this last year, but there may be some explanations. He got a new baby, a new house, a new preschool, a new church, new friends (for the first time he was around boys), etc. He learned SO much at preschool this year and there's no way I would have traded the experiences he had. I always say I'd rather he go through this phase now than when he first starts kindergarten. Yeah, so throughout this year he has been in trouble for roughhousing, kicking, spitting, hitting, throwing, yelling, saying bad words, and a host of other things. Part of his problem is that he is such an emotional child and when he gets angry about something he acts without thinking. So Eric and I implemented a few things that really seemed to help for us.

1. We only have 2 rules in our house: Love God. and Love each other. Everything else kind of stems from that. Having only 2 rules really cuts down on the confusion for us.
2. We have 1 main focus: respect. Everything he does (or doesn't do) we tie back to being respectful or disrespectful. We tell him that it is respectful to obey adults the first time, say yes ma'am and yes sir, put his dishes away, things like that.
3. He is rewarded for good behavior. When he was potty training he got a sticker for going to the bathroom. Now he gets a popsicle or sucker for being respectful at preschool. I don't consider it bribery. It's a reward system. And it works.
4. He has more responsibility thereby enforcing that he is a big boy. And big boys are respectful. He makes his bed in the morning, picks up his toys at night, puts his bowl/plate/silverware/cups in the sink, throws away wrappers, helps fold and hang up clothes, and gets his own snacks. We started giving him an allowance of a nickle every time he made his bed or helped with a chore. This way, he can buy his own gumballs when we go out to eat if he has done enough chores. It's not enough that he assumes he has to get paid to do chores, but it's enough that he is learning about money.

It's not perfect, but he did it on his own!

I painted this owl bank for him and it's where he puts his nickels.

I'm not going to say everything his perfect, but it is SOOOO much better.