Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The Consequence Jar

For those of you wanting to know more about "The Consequence Jar", here it is....

It's hard to find away to discipline your kids and to "stick" with it, especially when they get older. We now have a teenage daughter, the Princess, whom is 13 and a preteen, the Bookworm, whom is 10 soon to be 11 in December. And yes, he is a preteen, I teach his 4th/5th Grade Sunday School Class and the Curriculum is tagged as Preteen! Yes, I know I almost fell off my rocker!

So, one night after the Hubby and I tucked the kids into bed, we were talking and catching up on our day and talking about how we could effectively nip sassy talk, back talk, eye rolling, and just plain attitude out of our kids but be able to be consistant at the same time. That's when we thought of making a "Consequence Jar".

I took an index card and wrote on it in Red Marker, Consequence Jar and taped it to an old Mason Jar. The next night at dinner during our family's devotion time, we told the kids that we were going to come up with a Family Vision for our family. All four of us participated in making it, we didn't think that it would be right not to involve the kids. So, that night our Family Vision was made, it is: To be a family that glorifies God by, showing love, respect and encouragement to one another, through JOY:Jesus, Others, Yourself.

After we set our Family Vision, we then decided on the Family Rules. We each took a turn naming what we thought would be a good family rule.
Here is our Family Rules:
1. Respect Each Other
2. No Whining
3. Encourage Each Other
4. Practice Makes Progress
5. No Lying, Always Tell The Truth
6. No Back-talking
7. Obey Your Parents
8. No Bad Words
9. Respect Your Body
10. Do Not Interrupt When Someone is Talking
11. Do Not Be Mean
12. Use Your Manners
13. Respect Other's Property
14. Take Pride in Yourself
15. No More Than 2 Hours of Computer/TV Per Day

These were then quickly typed out on the computer and printed along with our Family Vision and then posted in our home where we all four can see them everyday and refer back to them.

Next, we told the kids that we had a new way of solving back-talking, whining, etc. "The Consequence Jar". They were quit surprised when I pulled the mason jar out. We again took turns with Mom writing on index cards tasks/consequences that were to go in the jar.

For example here are some of their consequences: pull weeds out of garden, pull weeds out of flower beds, pick up pine cones in back yard, pick up sticks in back yard, fill up all bird feeders in yard, vaccum upstairs and stairs, vaccum all of down stairs, clean both toliets, sweep drive-way, etc. I think you get the idea. These are basically chores that neither of them like to do! And yes, they both have a chore chart with daily chores.

Once all consequences were written down, we folded the index cards in half and put them all in the jar. And that was it, our Famly Vision, Family Rules and Consequence Jar done as a family and all done in one night.

How does the Consequence Jar work, well when one back talks, we say go pull, and they go straight to the jar and pull a consequence and they immediately go and do it. We of course also talk with them about their behavior as well. We have found that this does work in our family and I recommend it to everyone. It is a topic of conversation in our home when guests and friends come over, because The Consequence Jar sits in plain view on our kitchen bar. They ask, what is The Consequence Jar? And we tell them pull a card..........then they say OHHHHH, this is a good idea!

Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Another Year...

It's been awhile since I have blogged.........summer happened that's why! Well, another school year has begun. This year the Princess is the 8th grade and the Bookworm is in the 5th grade. They are both the biggest ones on each of their school campuses this year. The year has been great so far, I am praying that they both have wonderful years this year.

The Princess is still in Band this year playing her flute, she loves playing flute. She has wonderful teachers this year and she is really enjoying all of her classes. Her Algebra teacher is our Pianist at Church. The Princess tried out for the School's Girls Volleyball Team the first week of School, and she made it! We are very proud of her wanting to try something new. Her first game is tonight........GO LADY TIGERS!

The Bookworm is already getting very involved in the 5th Grade leadership at his school. He gets to School 15 minutes early every morning before all of the other students arrive and he signs in and vests-up for his position on the morning Safety Patrol. He loves being on the Safety Patrol and has been taking his job very seriously being very adamant about not being late in the mornings! The Bookworm is playing Soccer again this year. This is his 8th year playing Soccer! He started playing Soccer when he was 3 years old when we moved to Germany, wow!

The Hubby is now an Instructor of BOLC at the Army Finance School. He loves his new job. He thought that he wouldn't be able to get in front of new Lieutenants and talk, but he has found that it is very easy and enjoyable and has found that he has to have lots of candy for his throat! Funny how it is like pulling teeth to get him to talk on long trips in the van when we are going somewhere!) I guess women do have more to say than men! HA

As for me, the usual. My job never changes....the cleaing, washing, vaccuming, cooking, errands, groceries, and Mom's taxi service. But I wouldn' change it for anything in the world! I am trying to volunteer as much as I can anywhere that I may be needed, schools, church, etc. We just had one of our friends visit us that we were stationed with in Italy, it was fun to see her and spend a few days with her. For now I am getting excited about our Ladies Small Group Bible Study starting up next Monday night, we're doing the Frazzled Female by Cindi Wood, I can't wait!

As I type this it is lightly thundering and raining alittle. I love rainy days, they are absolutely my favorite kind of days. Hoping that your day is blessed and that you, like me, are thanking God for all of his many blessings that he has given to us.