09 January 2012
A New Year's Resolution for the whole family
As a parent of older elementary kids one of the
biggest things I deal with is selfish-I-deserve-everything approaches. So to help build an
atmosphere of generosity for others, I set out with a New Year's Resolution to
help encourage and celebrate acts of kindness toward others.
We also have another issue in our house not only with
our older girls, but with our preschool aged boys as well, so I thought of a
way to roll it all into one plan to ensure that our younger boys can gain from
the process as well. We have a combination of chair styles at our table and one
seems to be the favorite. The kids are all in competition to sit in that seat
at meal-time. I would rather everyone have their designated chairs to sit at
consistently, but everyone else just rushes to the table and sits in whatever
chair is available.
Step 1. This highly-coveted chair will be the
"Seat of Honor." Everyday my kids are given opportunities to listen
and do as their told without problems. If I feel that they have done so and
need to be recognized then they will get to sit in this chair and be praised
for their efforts to be obedient.
Step 2. Every night around the supper table each
person will take a turn telling something they did that day that deserves
celebrating. It might be helping another kid at school, or getting a
"golden ticket" at school (which is the school's reward system for
following procedure) or being "Reader of the Month" or bringing up a
grade on the report card, etc. This will not only teach the girls to look for
ways to help someone, but it will also allow the lines of communication to be
open in our busy lives between school, work and home. It will also remind my
husband and I that we are the first example of this type of behavior to our
kids.
Step 3. At the end of the week,( I'm hoping it will
become a Saturday routine, but it will depend on how busy our weekends are), I
will put a special token under the plate of the person that I feel excelled
throughout the week and they will be rewarded with a special desert or
something, (still working on that). This way every day is a celebration of our
choices and each week we as a family celebrate someone's hard work.
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