For example, Little Dude NEVER washes his hands or flushes the toilet. Every time he goes into the bathroom, Brian and I yell "flush and wash your hands!". He never does. So I found some cute cards on Etsy, put it in a cheap frame, and put it in the bathroom. Now I don't have to yell or get annoyed, and Little Dude has a physical reminder every time he goes in the bathroom.
Raising kids with ADHD, when you have it yourself is a difficult task. I read all these books about how I'm supposed to "be their frontal lobe" because theirs is underdeveloped. I'm not 100% certain mine is developed. I struggle with the same things they struggle with. When I read about putting reminders at the point of performance, it made total sense. I need this too. The book also suggested a token system for rewards and consequences. We've had a billion of these. They work for awhile, then I forget about them, or they stop working....
A few days ago I decided to search the internet for a plan. I needed a token system and I needed to have it out in the open. I stumbled upon family command centers. If you Google it or search on Pinterest you will find a ton. I picked out different parts from different pictures and made something that works for us.
At first I wanted it in our family room and I wanted it to be for the whole family. I decided to scale back and make it just for the kids, so I put it in their playroom. I went to Joann's, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Storables. I must have made a billion trips back and forth. Buying and returning all kinds of crap.
Here's what I came up with.
I got everything for the chore board from Joann's. For the actual chores, I got 3.25" wooden circles and a giant hole punch. I printed out the chore pictures from a chart we have been using for awhile. I got it on Etsy. I glued the chores to the circles and put magnets on the back. I used stickers for the words and glued ribbon to separate the sides. We had so many chore circles, I had to get extra boards to store them all. I switch out their to do's through out the day. They keep their rewards on the bottom of that board too.
For each chore they do, they get marbles. Each one has a bucked for marbles. The middle bucket is where I keep the marbles. I got the buckets at Joann's and the hanger at Storables.
Here are our house rules. Nothing too crazy. The board and ribbon came from Joann's. I just printed out the rules and laminated them. I put magnets on the back and voila.
The kids can trade in their marbles for rewards. I got the rewards from here. I laminated them and separated them by how much they are worth. The buckets are labeled 10, 20, and 30. Bonus tv is worth 10. A trip to the ice cream shop is worth 30. We are still working out the points. Yesterday they had like a billion hours of extra computer time.
I printed out some ideas of how they can earn marbles. This is also a reminder for me. I sometimes slack off on the marble giving.
I found this at Hobby Lobby and I couldn't resist. One of my favorite quotes and fitting for my little angels.
I've had these baskets for ever. I think I got them at Storables. I just put their names on with the left over stickers. They put their backpacks, shoes and jackets in these.
It has been a couple days and it is working well. We are still working out the kinks. I need to come up with a certain time of day they can trade in marbles. I'm tired of doing it all day long. I also need to set up rules regarding how many electronic rewards can be used each day.
For the next 2 weeks I will only give marbles. After the 2 weeks I will start taking away marbles as consequences. We will see how that goes...
