Travis and the token system

Earlier this summer, Travis was becoming rather "back-talky" and argumentative with us at times. In order to curtail this behavior (and limit his Wii time), we instituted the "token system": every day Travis would receive 10 tokens (they hung on the wall on a cool wooden holder Rich whipped out from some scrap wood) which represented 5 minutes of Wii time. As he played, he had to keep track of his time and remove tokens (he's really good at counting by 5s now!). But he could also lose tokens for arguing with us or generally having a bad attitude. As Natasha could attest, it was a pretty effective system.

With the move, we'd stopped using the tokens as effectively as before. And for awhile, there wasn't much unpacked to entertain him, so we were kinda loose with the time limits. But in the last week or so, the horrid behavior has really come back with a vengeance, particularly at bedtime. Basically, saying "it's time to get ready for bed" was resulting in a 5 year old throwing a fit on the floor. SO...

Last night we tweaked the plan, and now he has to EARN his 10 tokens. He earns 5 for jobs to do getting ready for bed, and 5 for morning routine jobs (we're preparing to get him out the door for kindergarten on time!). We explained what he had to do, set the timer for 15 minutes, and whatever he had completed when the timer went off, he would earn that many tokens. With 7 minutes to spare he was ready for bed and all tucked in, no fits, whining or complaints! Success!

This morning he was up and at them, super cooperative and ready to go with no problems. He was so proud of himself! He was happy that no one was nagging him, and we were happy to not deal with his obnoxious behavior. The real test will come tomorrow morning when they go to daycare for the first time, but hopefully it will be an effective plan.

As an aside, we know that this obnoxious behavior is part of him getting ready to go to kindergarten, but knowing that doesn't make it any easier to live with. He's getting pretty excited about kindergarten, however. Last week we went and bought his school supplies, and one day when we swung by his school (at Travis' request) his teacher's car was in the lot and she let us inside the kindergarten area, so he got to see the playground, the room, and most importantly, the bathroom! (It's not magic!) He was feeling pretty good about that. Last night we bought some "school clothes" and today he helped me plan some lunch menus to take to school (he was SUPER excited about that!) so I think we are doing a good job of easing into this transition. The kids are going to go to their daycare for two days this week and next, so they will both be able to settle in and make a few friends before they start their full-time schedule.

Sorry, no pics tonight, but hopefully later this week....we have a final "family summer adventure" planned.