My latest organization kick

Ok, so lately I have been on an organization kick. No - it is not much of a cleaning kick (surprise me with a visit and you will see that for sure!). It is more of a way to keep my kids organized and behaving well. I discovered a website called meckmom.com. She has tons of great ideas. I bought a little laminator at Costco and I have adapted many of her ideas and implemented them in our home. So far, they are great!

The Busy Bee

This is a simple chart. It is kind of like "which kid is the boss for the day". So far I am just alternating days between Gavin and Alyssa. Whoever is the busy bee for the day makes the decisions - which cartoons or movies to watch, what to play, and who gets to say our prayers. They even get to be my "special helper" (they think it is cool!) The prayer thing is a big deal in this family - the kids always fight about whose turn it is. Now, they know the Busy Bee gets to choose who says the prayer. It is awesome. My kids still argue (of course! They are very strong-willed, independent kids!) but it has gotten less and less as the Busy Bee concept has been implemented. This is a picture of our Busy Bee chart:

Bedroom Checklist

This is another idea from meckmom.com. It has also worked great with our kids. If they want to watch cartoons or do something, then I ask them how their room looks. We will go back to their room together and kind of do an inventory of what needs to be done and what has been done. They have pictures so they can easily see what the chore is. Here are pictures of Gavin & Alyssa's charts:

Behavior Charts

I had to come up with a way to "punish" the kids when they kept throwing fits or breaking our family rules. I got sick of always yelling at them. I came up with behavior charts. I created one for Gavin with frogs. It says "I am Leaping for GREAT Behavior". Alyssa's is a flower chart. Hers says "I can Grow a Happy Attitude". Each chart has 5 items - either frogs or flowers. We sat down and came up with family rules and lists of acceptable behavior. We discussed how if they start acting up, then they will be warned about losing a flower or a frog. If they continue with the bad behavior, then we take one away. If they lose all 5 during a day, then they lose privileges and cannot watch tv or play the Wii - or do anything we determine would be a good punishment. We start over the next day. The kids freak out when they lose a frog or flower. It is kind of funny to watch - even though they are throwing fits. It has been a good thing in our house. Here are their charts I came up with:

Reverence Badges

My kids are horrible during sacrament meeting. We reached the boiling point during a SIL's baby blesssing. I know the kids act worse when there are tons of family around that they want to see and show off for, but it is particularly annoying during sacrament meeting. After that awful experience, we knew we had to do something - especially before Mike's dad was put in as Bishop and we attended that meeting. We had MANY lessons on reverence. I found a cute FHE lesson on reverence and we did that. I also implemented a reverence badge idea. I adapted it from the meckmom.com website. I created these badges the kids wear during sacrament meeting. Since we discussed what is reverent behavior, the kids know when they are being irreverent. When that happens, they get a warning. If it continues, we take their badge away. They earn it back as soon as they are reverent again. At the end of sacrament meeting, if they still have their badge, then they get to choose two special treats. They are small treats or stickers, but the kids love it. We started out with the idea that if they didn't have their badge they would just get a hug and a reminder to do better next week. However, we decided with them being so young (and after Alyssa told me I could just keep the badge!), we decided if they don't have the badge, they get a little tootsie roll. If they do have the badge, then they get to pick two little treats. Here are our reverence badges: