Thursday, May 10, 2007
So we've crossed over to the dark side of behavior modification... the reward chart.
Somehow, we've avoided the whole "reward thing" thus far-- I mean, really, what do M&M's have to do with going to the potty??? We've managed to convince Sam that he should do all kinds of things just for the sake of doing them... and although we have turned him into a bit of a praise-monger, it seemed to be working...
For everything except sleep.
Sam used to be a good sleeper-- he'd go to bed by himself, and then wander down around 4 or 5 a.m. to climb into our bed until morning-- and all was well. Then about a year ago, one of his damn teachers (not you, Stacey) had to chase the kids around while pretending to be a monster... Sam had his first nightmare... and from then on, we've been sitting in his room while he falls asleep. Add that to the fact that he has gotten much bigger, and since he insists on being the "-" in the "H" in bed, there isn't much room for me & Jonathan.
Tali, on the other hand, is a very good sleeper so far. Once she started going to sleep on her own, and sleeping through the night (more on this in a second), we decided it was time to start working on Sam.
So... with my almost 4 years of pent-up-reward-chart creativity, I went to work. There are tickets, there are points, there are stars, and numbers and charts and levels and prizes. It is very excellent.
AND MAN DOES IT WORK.
It took all of ONE NIGHT, and we now have a boy who goes to bed on his own, and stays there until it's light out. (I'll post another time about the deep pain of having a boy love a paper ticket more than snuggling with me for 4 hours... but I think I'm over it)
This reward stuff is good, I tell ya.
Unfortunately, the minute I told people that Tali was sleeping through the night, she stopped doing it, and lately is waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 4:00 a.m.
And now that I've posted this, I'm sure Sam won't sleep either.
Feh.
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Somehow, we've avoided the whole "reward thing" thus far-- I mean, really, what do M&M's have to do with going to the potty??? We've managed to convince Sam that he should do all kinds of things just for the sake of doing them... and although we have turned him into a bit of a praise-monger, it seemed to be working...
For everything except sleep.
Sam used to be a good sleeper-- he'd go to bed by himself, and then wander down around 4 or 5 a.m. to climb into our bed until morning-- and all was well. Then about a year ago, one of his damn teachers (not you, Stacey) had to chase the kids around while pretending to be a monster... Sam had his first nightmare... and from then on, we've been sitting in his room while he falls asleep. Add that to the fact that he has gotten much bigger, and since he insists on being the "-" in the "H" in bed, there isn't much room for me & Jonathan.
Tali, on the other hand, is a very good sleeper so far. Once she started going to sleep on her own, and sleeping through the night (more on this in a second), we decided it was time to start working on Sam.
So... with my almost 4 years of pent-up-reward-chart creativity, I went to work. There are tickets, there are points, there are stars, and numbers and charts and levels and prizes. It is very excellent.
AND MAN DOES IT WORK.
It took all of ONE NIGHT, and we now have a boy who goes to bed on his own, and stays there until it's light out. (I'll post another time about the deep pain of having a boy love a paper ticket more than snuggling with me for 4 hours... but I think I'm over it)
This reward stuff is good, I tell ya.
Unfortunately, the minute I told people that Tali was sleeping through the night, she stopped doing it, and lately is waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 4:00 a.m.
And now that I've posted this, I'm sure Sam won't sleep either.
Feh.
