Wednesday, November 21, 2007

To Do List for the Kids

One of the times that we have been having a LOT of trouble with is the transition from school to home. I'm tired, they're tired, it's hard to stay focused, stuff ends up everywhere, I'm sure that's not an uncommon scenario.

I created a simple To Do list for each child, taking photos of whatever they felt was appropriate for each item on the list, and copied them each onto their favorite color cardstock. Today we used it for the first time. As soon as they had buckled themselves in, I handed them each their personal to do list so they could review it in the car. I wish I could say that they were each able to stay focused independently and complete all the tasks with no prompts from me, but that is our ultimate goal. It did help me get them focused, and I could now remind them to pick up their list again because they still needed to do # __. When they felt they were finished, they came over to me and we read their lists together, making sure each one was completed, and then they received major praise and reinforcement from me. And now the boys are onto A's tv choice for quiet time, and will be on to their computer time soon (when J gets her tv choice), so I better get my butt in gear to do my chores for the day while they're resting.

1 comment:

Domestic Goddess said...

Way to go! This will help tremendously. DOn't forget little rewards and incentives to help motivate them to do it themselves. Bug Boys still needs prompting but it is AMAZING that a year ago I felt I needed to do everything, and now I only need to remind him to check his list. It makes my life sooooo much easier. We've had to tweak our list a few times, but it is working so well!