Had a number of suggestions on an earlier bed time. So we gave that a try and it helped over all but didn't seem to help with the morning specifically.
Had some suggestions of watching a favorite program while eating breakfast. My kids get breakfast at the sitters house so that isn't something that would work for me right now.
I don't want to get my kids up any earlier than I already have to if possible and I know that the schedule I have been working with works if there aren't any major snags. I did decide to turn on a florescent light in the kids rooms and open their doors 10 minutes prior to time to get moving. My hopes in doing this was to slowly nudge them out of their sleep to make the transition a bit smoother. I think this has helped a little.
After much thought and contemplation (honestly), I decided to use a reward system. Bribery in sheep's clothing you say? Well yes kind of. I like to think of it as an incentive program! Ha ha ... yes I have been told I can be clever when it comes to wording at times.
I implemented this system last week. Last week was successful. This week we are still one day away from getting a reward after having a rocky start Tuesday morning. Here is what I came up with that I thought would work for us:
Every day my dd cooperates in a tolerable manner (which includes does not cry, kick, scream, struggle, push clothes off) while getting dressed and out the door she gets 2 things.
- a reeses miniature peanut butter cup after dinner; and
- a sticker on the calendar that day.
DD was very excited last week to pick her prize, "any one I want mom?", "yes, any one you want". She wanted to put the Dora stickers in her sticker book right then and there. She has also asked most every day, including the weekend if she gets a surprise today.
So far that is a good sign to me that this might just work, for now, and for now is great for me. Progress is part of how I keep "IT" together.
I for one, don't think there is anything wrong with using rewards. We did something similar when we were potty training our daughter. To me, it's teaching them that good choices reap good consequences...which in this case are reeses miniatures :) (wouldn't that be great if it worked that way for adults!) I know there are some that would completely disagree, but hey, it works!
ReplyDeleteThanks Amy, I was also going to make the connection that we all have some form of "reward" as to why we do most anything. Biggest example is work, reward is a paycheck. I personally feel my reward should be much BIGGER. In a perfect world it would be... maybe one day. It would be great if peanut butter cups worked for adults. I would buy stock in them.
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