Responsibilities & Positive Reinforcement: UPDATE!

Well, we've been charting Eli's responsibilities for four weeks now.  We stuck with the first simple chart for three weeks, and it went really well!  His four responsibilities were:  Get dressed, Brush teeth - AM, Brush teeth - PM, and Stay dry all day.  We had a lot of success with getting dressed and brushing teeth (although he needs reminding), but NO success with staying dry.  UGH!  SO frustrating....

SO, I came up with a new chart!

I really need to work on my photography skills...  But that's not important.  Let's talk about our chart changes.  First of all, I added "Make bed" to his list of responsibilities.  This is something that I know he is capable of and makes life easier for me!  I'll be honest, my main motivation with this is that he used to constantly drag his blankets and pillows off his bed and all over the house, which drove me crazy!  Now that it's his responsibility to make his bed, he takes pride in it, and leaves it made all day!  He still charts getting dressed, because most days it still takes me telling him to do it 5 times before it actually gets done.  Rather than keeping brushing teeth split into AM & PM, I made it one task, so he only gets one reward even if he does get it done twice.  And in hopes of finally having some success with staying dry, we split that into morning and afternoon.  I am VERY happy to say, in his first week, he earned two stickers!  I know it doesn't seem like much, but trust me, this is a BIG DEAL.


At the end of each week, Eli received his nickels!  This was so exciting, for both of us!  I was never able to find any containers to buy for his three money categories, so for now we are using plastic sandwich meat containers.

Fancy, huh?!  The masking tape and blue Sharpie really make them look nice!  :-D  Okay, okay, they may not be pretty, but he loves them, especially because Daddy cut slots in the lids, so he can put the coins in like you would in a piggy bank.

He caught on right away to the idea of giving 1/10th to God, saving 1/10th till he's a grownup, and spending the rest!  I only had to explain it to him once, and each week he enjoys counting and dividing it up.  The first three weeks he chose to stick to the minimum for God and saving, but this last week he wanted to put 1/3rd of his money in each container, giving and saving more than we require of him.  I was quite proud.  :-)  We actually hadn't been to church for a few weeks for various reasons, so Eli brought his giving money with him to church yesterday, and he could NOT wait to give it to God!  It was so sweet!

So far, I think we are both really liking the chart and it's results!