SuperClean

The boys room was beyond messy. It was approaching a state of Disaster. I didn't take a "before" picture because I feared someone may alert CPS...

Actually, their room had been worse - much worse. Last March, I removed ALL toys from their room. At first, they thought it was a joke.. then reality set in. you know what? All of those toys are STILL in the basement. I'm thinking they REALLY have too much shit if I can take away that much and they hardly skip a beat.

I did leave their books (can you blame me?), which were the source of much of the mess. When Andy's teacher retired, she gave away her books. Andy came home with literally hundreds of books! Mostly "Human Body" and science topics. go figure! But the books and a couple of LEGO sets that they did earn had pretty much exploded all over the room!

So after days and days of asking, begging then threatening them, I decided it was time for a new tactic. I took a page from Super Nanny's book (Figuratively - good book. don't want to rip it!). She had a couple of little girls dress up as "busy bees" to make cleaning fun... now, my boys are older, and well... boys. SO we went with Superheros!

Their mission - should they chose to accept it (and really, they had no choice) was to get their room from "super-messy" to "super-clean" and to do it "super-fast".

They picked out costumes, got dressed and went to work. They picked up and made their beds. I rearranged the furniture and swept the floor (my Goodness the dirt!). They still have a mountain of laundry to put away, and we need more bookshelves... but those are tasks for another day...

As for "toy pergatory" and the disaster that is supposed to be our family room.... I'm going to thin the toys while the big guys are camping. I hate to chose what to get rid of behind their back, but Andy personifies his toys so much (no more "Toy Story" for him!) that he finds it nearly impossible to part with anything. SInce there is SO much.. He'll likely not notice what was thinned out.

Losing My Marbles

... but in a good way!

I posted on the (not just) Daddy Day Camp blog about the "Marble Jar". totally NOT my idea! I got it from Let's Explore.

I've got a big bucket of marbles and a small galss canning jar. The boys (Andy & Ryan - Colin tried to eat the marbles) get to take marbles out of the bucket and put them in the jar when praise is in order. The amout of marbles is up to us and depends on what they did and how hard they try.

We used to use a system of pennies. Each kid had a jar and we had a jar. They lost pennies for mis-behaving, but could earn them back. It became focused on the negative behavior, not the positive and really just backfired, so we abandoned it.

The marbles are strictly POSITIVE reinforcement. It forces us to remember to give them plenty of praise and it is a form of praise that they can see and touch. They share a jar, so, they BOTH have to behave to get the reward. We've had issues of one instigating just to get the other in trouble (they both do it).

Once the jar is full, they will earn their reward - a trip to the book store and $15 to spend - each. Now, that could have just as easily been a trip to the Public Library - and it almost was. BUT Andy is reading the Andrew Lost series and is on his last book. We would be buying him more anyway... Ryan and I are reading The Magic Tree House on loan from his cousin, but I want him to get something he can read on his own. He has been reading to Colin, which is great, but he is reading "baby" books that are well below his abilities.

While we are on the topic of kid books, Barnes & Noble is having a summer reading program for school-aged kids. they read 8 books, fill out a "reading Journal" and bring it in to the store and get a coupon for a FREE BOOK! SInce my kids are required to keep summer reading journals anyway, this one is a no-brainer!