We've been fortunate to have some very warm and sun shiny days mixed in between our bouts of winter weather that has given us the taste of spring and all the fun we can have outside when the weather is nice. It also has felt like a tease when we are wearing t shirts one day and snow suits the next. On this beautiful weekend we visited the park/playground on both Saturday and Sunday as rewards for a new behavior system we have implemented to encourage kind words, gentle hands, being good listeners, and being helpers. Basically Hannah and Owen have clips that can be moved up and down on a chart as a visual reminder about the choices they are making. They also have "star" jars which get filled with pom poms every time they are caught doing something kind, helpful, following directions quickly, or playing with each other nicely. They pick something to work towards (trip to playground) and when the star jars are full we go. This has worked really well for them. I was prepared to reward them separately, but amazingly they pretty equally earn pom poms and have managed to both be at the top of their jars at the same time. It has been amazing to see how quickly the can consciously make better choices. The best part has been witnessing a closer bond and more positive interactions and play between them. They are even more lovingly exchanging kind words, hugs, and even kisses with each other on a regular basis. As with teaching it has been much easier to reward positive choices than discipline for negative and as usual the positive reinforcement has caused the negative behaviors to decrease and therefore the amount of time spent in time out has decreased too.
Our star jars...Hannah and Owen picked their colors and decorated them by themselves with star stickers. We can pick different sized pom poms based on whether their good choice is small in nature or something major.
This is their clip chart. They move down with poor choices, but can work their way back up with good ones. Ending the day on Amazing gets rewarded with 3 pom poms in their jar at the end of the night.
Now onto the playground pictures:
We enjoyed lots of things about the playground at Pole Green Elementary (Pole Green Park, our first destination, was too crowded by the time we got there) but Mommy only managed to capture us on the swings. Look how big we are using the big kid swings. Hannah loves to swing as high as possible while Owen is a little more cautious. They also loved climbing on the play equipment independently and going down the slides. We took their scooters and they enjoyed having flat sidewalks to speed and race down as well.
After about 45 minutes of playing our ears caught the catchy tune of the...ICE CREAM TRUCK! We knew this had to be part of our treat for the day! Hannah and Owen have been waiting since last summer to see and buy ice cream from the ice cream truck. It used to come through our neighborhood all the time until last summer when it stopped coming through. They were so excited and so were we to experience this first with them.
Everybody, including Daddy, decides what kind they should get.
This day brings sweet smiles from all!
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