rewards

Electronics – where do you draw the line or how much is too much? 1

 in electronics / limiting / rewards / screen time / The minimads by

We have a lot of technology in TheMadHouse, lots of electronic gadgets, gizmo’s and games, but for my sanity I we are introducing technology free time. It has never been an issue for us in the past, but both the boys are getting to an age where they would gladly play on the Wii, their leapsters, Daddy’s ipod touch or the PS2 for all their waking hours.  We are getting tantrums when they are told “no more electronic time”.  We have never had to ration it in the past but that is where we are headed. So we are going to be changing the rules on our reward system and the more »

Reinforcing Good Habits

 in Good habits / rewards by

I have blogged before that the eldest MiniMad doesn’t drink enough, so we are focusing on reinforcing good habits this week of having at least 5 drinks per day. I work on the FlyLady theory that it is one new habit a month, so we will be carrying this out for the next four weeks. So I have drawn up a really simple chart and one any of us have a drink we draw it on there (we have left MadDad off for the weekdays as he is at work, but he doesn’t escape the weekend) Initially I am focusing on just getting enough fluid in to both the boys and more »

Praise, punnishment, rewards and consequence 5

 in family shop / punnishment / rewards by

We have always tried to bring up the MiniMads with positive praise and decided early on that we didn’t want to smack them, as we believe behaviour breeds behaviour, however, we are finding that this can be a challenge. Things slipped somewhat when I was in and out of hospital and physically not well enough to do much more than issue a well done or a reprimand. It turns out that the key to success for us is CONSISTENCY. We have tried the reward chart route, but found it didn’t work for us, unless it was something the MiniMads wanted really bad and they don’t want for much, like most of more »