Wii Time
We bought a Wii for the family this year for Christmas. We also bought each of the kids one game each. Then, some of our friends got wind of it and bought each of the kids a game, too. So, we ended up with quite a selection. Well, needless to say, it was a big hit! They love it and wanted to spend every waking hour of Christmas break playing. Although it was a vacation for them, there were still things that needed to be done, but they were ignoring everything else. Nate especially would get up in the morning and literally haunt me until I gave him permission to play. I have a problem with that. I started making them take care of their responsibilities first , but they kept trying to fudge on them in an effort to hurry. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they loved this gift, and I'm not one of those moms who really hates video gaming of all kinds, but when bickering over who got to play next ensued, and no one had gone outside in days, I knew something had to be done. Here's what I came up with. Not only did I use the Wii as an incentive for doing chores, but I also decided that I could take away time, too. You can click on the first pic to enlarge it enough to read the rules. Nate helped me come up with them. Hard to believe, I know, but Nate has always had an overdeveloped sense of what is fair and what isn't. I was very pleasantly surprised with how much he was on board with it. I guess he figured that I was GOING to set limits, so he might as well make sure that they were good ones and applied to everyone. We wrote an amendment about three minutes after printing up the rules.:)
Taking my new found knowledge of lap booking, I made a folder for each child to have a visual of time earned. For every chore( aside from personal responsibilities, i.e, schoolwork, room cleaning, music,etc.) they get 15 minutes of Wii time. This has really made things peaceful...and CLEANER around here. :) Responsibilities get done so that they can spend their time earned when they are finished. They don't always have time to play on a given day. For instance, Tuesdays we have youth group and Wednesdays we have Bible Study and Prayer service. Sometimes there is just too much schoolwork and projects to do. When this happens, they don't get upset because they know that they have earned the time and will get to spend it when there is time. One of my friends told me that she allows three hours for weekends and that meant that it was hard to make plans without a major bargaining session. Not happenin' in this house! That would drive me insane! Sometimes they are interrupted and as you can see I added a rule about attitude. No bargaining aloud! Also, Dad has overruled several times for a family game night. The kids get a big charge out of this. :) For the eldest(14 1/2 going on 25), who is wanting to chat online with friends, check emails, and blog, and doesn't really care quite so much about the Wii, this works well, too. Just one of my ideas for a peaceable household, even though I will soon have TWO teenagers ( Nate will be 13 next month :0). Sometimes you just have to get creative as the kids get older. Now, I realize that the visual folder and little quarter hour pieces of pie may seem silly for older kids, but hey, it's working and they're happy. I'm ecstatic! What could be better?
Taking my new found knowledge of lap booking, I made a folder for each child to have a visual of time earned. For every chore( aside from personal responsibilities, i.e, schoolwork, room cleaning, music,etc.) they get 15 minutes of Wii time. This has really made things peaceful...and CLEANER around here. :) Responsibilities get done so that they can spend their time earned when they are finished. They don't always have time to play on a given day. For instance, Tuesdays we have youth group and Wednesdays we have Bible Study and Prayer service. Sometimes there is just too much schoolwork and projects to do. When this happens, they don't get upset because they know that they have earned the time and will get to spend it when there is time. One of my friends told me that she allows three hours for weekends and that meant that it was hard to make plans without a major bargaining session. Not happenin' in this house! That would drive me insane! Sometimes they are interrupted and as you can see I added a rule about attitude. No bargaining aloud! Also, Dad has overruled several times for a family game night. The kids get a big charge out of this. :) For the eldest(14 1/2 going on 25), who is wanting to chat online with friends, check emails, and blog, and doesn't really care quite so much about the Wii, this works well, too. Just one of my ideas for a peaceable household, even though I will soon have TWO teenagers ( Nate will be 13 next month :0). Sometimes you just have to get creative as the kids get older. Now, I realize that the visual folder and little quarter hour pieces of pie may seem silly for older kids, but hey, it's working and they're happy. I'm ecstatic! What could be better?
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