For awhile now, I have been saving the clear plastic zippered "bags" that blankets, sheets, and other such items come in, but have never known what exactly to do with them. I just figured they were too good to just throw away. Well, a couple days ago while organizing around the house, I found I needed some way to store some of Punkin's toys and supplies in an easy way for her to still see what it was. And I suddenly remembered all these bags I'd been saving! Problem solved!
Punkin always wants to eat the same thing for breakfast EVERY morning (a plain bagel with butter and honey and an egg). I have been trying to figure out how to get her to eat other things. (She is not a picky eater, really. She'll eat almost anything. She just likes her routine and is starting to have a more definite opinion on what she wants.) So, I made this chart that hangs laminated on our refrigerator. She finds the day and tells me what is for breakfast. Then, she marks it off with her dry erase marker. She still sometimes fusses about it, but at least she knows ahead of time what to expect.
We played around with other chore charts and responsibility incentives, even commercially made ones like Melissa and Doug. We finally settled on this one that I made, and Punkin is doing SO well with it, and is very motivated by it. It has helped a LOT with reminding her, too, to do things with a happy heart. (She doesn't earn a mark if she does it while complaining or if she has to be told more than two times.) I like this because it's an ongoing thing. It's not tied to days of the week, and she can earn a mark more than once in a day for some of them (like obeying or doing something good). If she doesn't earn a mark for something on the first day of the week, she is not sunk. Just whenever she gets to the end of a row, she earns a prize, and we erase just that row and start that row over while continuing on with the others. Anyway, it works great for us!
And I thought I'd post our daily schedule now that I think I have it pretty much down how I want it. And now that Firecracker is 6 months old, I don't feel it is constantly changing as much as in those early months. It really works great for us, and since I am such a "routine" person, I love knowing what our day will be like instead of flying by the seat of my pants each day. But that's just me. Other people hate a schedule and like to just go with the flow. Oh, and one other thing. I mentioned earlier that Punkin is becoming very opinionated about what she wants and doesn't want. What to wear each day is one of those situations. If it were up to her, she'd wear leggings and a dress every day. And the same pink one at that. SO, I made up some "rules" that have helped. If we are not going anywhere that day, she can pick whatever she wants to wear (within season). If we have somewhere to go, I give her two choices the night before and what she picks that night is what she wears the next day...no changing her mind. And finally, if it is Sunday, I pick what she wears to church. So far, it has worked well. Oh, there are days when she doesn't like my choices that I give her and will fuss about it, but we don't have the battles anymore because she knows what to expect upfront.
In conclusion, I am finding that with a toddler, it is best to give them guidelines and let them know what to expect ahead of time. In other words, it works best that she knows ahead of time that on such and such a day we are having this or that for breakfast versus just telling her that morning what we are having. And visual charts are a huge help!
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