We have a new system in place in the Holland home. Video games have been quickly becoming things over which to be obsessed. Martin's attitude was less than desirable and my even keeled child was quickly becoming a bad attitude with legs. My friend Shannon gave me a great idea - and I quickly put this idea into place. My children are now required to earn minutes to play video games.
Read for 30 minutes (or more), you get 30 minutes to play games
Chores around the house ... gets them more minutes. Each chore has a certain amount of time earned. (I made a chart in my notebook with the chore and the number of minutes they can earn next to it) My bathroom sink has never been cleaner!! In fact, I had to tell him that he could clean the sink as many times each day as he would like, but I'd only give him the minutes for it once per day.
Once the minutes are earned, we set the timer. When the timer goes off, the video games do too.The attitude problem is mostly fixed now, since they lose minutes for a bad attitude, being unkind to their brothers/sister, general bad behavior. They also realize that the ball is in their court. If they don't play - it's not just because I don't want them to - it's because they haven't done anything to earn the minutes.
Harmony has mostly returned to our home.
Love this idea with video games! They can too easily become obsessive in the house. We do this same thing for TV time in our house but with plastic chips (coins). Once your coins are gone so is TV time (and they can be taken away with a sour spirit present). You are such a great momma!
ReplyDeleteAnd I love the new color on the background!
Great idea!!!! I'm keeping this one in my "memory files"!!!
ReplyDeleteTHIS IS GENIUS!! I even read it outloud to my mama!!!
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