Frugal sticker charts for encouraging good behaviour
Both my kids have successfully beaten two irritating habits this month with the aid of sticker charts fashioned from games published in two of the comics they have been given.
My daughter was coming into my bed each night at least once usually twice. I was having to wake up to escort/carry her back to her own room during the small hours which was turning me into a sleep deprived wreck.
My son was wetting the bed each night and I was finding it more and more difficult to wash & dry his bedding (usually including his duvet as he sleeps on top of it) as the days got cooler and damper.
I found these ‘board games’ in the comics and took them out and stuck them to the wall at their height with blu tack. I announced that each night they didn’t do the irritating thing they would get a sticker and on the days when they got a sticker on a coloured square (located frequently alopng the game but not too frequently). They would get a special treat.
The special treats are my choice and have varied from making cakes with me in the kitchen while the other child does something else, a visit to a fun place (when they both happen to get coloured squares on the same morning), a 10p toy from a charity shop basket of toys, watching a video of their choice after their bathtime (bathtime got moved very early). I also have a handy bag of fairly cheap toys given to me by my mother-in-law which I kept in our wardrobe the kids sometimes get to choose a toy from the ‘Nanny Lyn Bag’. I might put a replacement bag together with any excess toys the kids are given for their brithday or Christmas.
Things I have learnt:
- Always put the sticker on first thing in the morning rather than ‘Oooh you’ll be getting a sticker when I can be bothered to get the stickers’ as invariably everyone forgets and then you have to give two the next day or one because they’ve since remembered but have wet the bed / woken you up in the meantime.
- Decide what the special treat is there and then so you aren’t coerced into issuing more than one because they use the ‘Nooo that wasn’t my special treat, my special treat is going to be a new comic’
- Lots of talking about how brilliant it is that they have managed to do 3 days (in total) of not doing the thing which made you implement the sticker chart and how many days they will have managed when they eventually get to the end.
- Make a big song and dance about how brilliant it is that they haven’t done the thing again, phone up Nanna/Daddy/Uncle Dan to tell them too and give them a big kiss and let them know how proud it makes you.