Pennies!

Trying to teach a child anything is hard work, especially when it involves consequences (good or bad). Having a strong willed, very independent child makes it almost a battle when trying to teach between good and bad behavior. Dan and I had order a dinosaur bank from Bedazzled and we were planning on using it as a reward system for potty training purposes but since that is not going so well, we decided to use it as a reward system for other things. We created a chart using a dry erase board and listed 4 tasks that Joshua could do and get pennies for. Each task has a different value to it and when Joshua reached 100 pennies he could trade in his pennies for a prize. I had no idea if this was going to work or not, because once again Joshua is all about "his turn" and "I do it!" so I didn't know if he would get the whole concept of "if you do ______, you will get pennies." We decided to list these tasks first 1. Feed Milo=1 penny 2. Pick Up Toys=2 pennies 3. Use your words=2 4. Stay in bed=4 pennies. So the last two on the list are the ones that we have been struggling with lately. He has a tendency to get very upset and shut down when he can't explain something or we do not understand what he is saying, so we thought if he was able to stop and use his words instead of pitching a fit then it would help with the tantrums and he would get rewarded with pennies(everyone wins!) Staying in bed was a huge issue for a couple of weeks, with Joshua screaming and crying and wanting me to hold him and not wanting to be by himself. It only happened at bedtime and it was exhausting for everyone. So once, again use the pennies and see what happens. He actually has gotten over the getting out of bed thing, I think he was just sensing a change happening at school or something, not quite sure, but he is going to bed and staying in his bed now. If Joshua chose not to do the tasks then he did not get any pennies for that task. At first it was a learning process. We showed him the board, the pennies and the bank(which he thought was cool!) and explained to him that he would get pennies if he did these tasks. It took a couple of days, but we kept pressing on and he finally caught on and now he goes up to the board to count his "penny marks" before he goes to bed so he knows how many he gets to put in the bank. He also is starting to understand consequences to what he does and doesn't do. He sometimes chooses not to feed Milo and he will say "no penny" and we tell him that is correct. Sometimes he is ok with that and other times he isn't, but for the most part he has caught on and it is working out wonderfully for us. He gets so excited before bedtime to put his pennies in the bank and it has even become part of the bedtime routine. I know eventually we will change up the task and hopefully add potty training too, but for now this works for us. Last week Joshua reached 100 pennies after 2 and 1/2 weeks and he traded in his pennies for a cool airplane that he was so excited about!

The Penny Chart

The cool bank we ordered from Bedazzled!

Penny time! (that is what Joshua calls it)

Part of our nightly routine

One happy kid with his prize!!

If you like the dinosaur bank in the picture, just go to
http://www.bedazzledplano.com/htmlver/ to order one of your very own. There are different ones to choose from and they can customize it with your child's name!!!