Monday, June 2, 2008

a secret

I have a secret, I bribe my children all the time. Shh, don't tell anyone! Lately, I have had trouble with Zoe keeping her room clean. Actually this is an ongoing battle and I don't foresee it remedying itself anytime soon. BUT I have found a way to get her to make her bed! It's called bribery. She made it a few times on her own and I praised her obnoxiously. She loved the praise but I knew that wouldn't keep her making it forever. So one day, I got a flash of genius, I said, "Zoe you have done so well making your bed I think I'll read you an extra Junie B. Jones (her favorite books) chapter tonight. You deserve a reward." She was so stoked it was ridiculous. I am a mommy prodigy! Hurray for me! We read these chapters after our group reading time and after I put Parker to bed, it's our "special time." So this is a big deal for her. Now in the past couple weeks, I'd say she makes it about 75% of the time but she knows when it is time to read if she gets an extra chapter or not. My problem is going to be when we run out of Junie books... bribery, you should try it, it ain't pretty but it sure does the trick sometimes!

4 comments:

Satunas4 said...

I know doesn't this work great!!!
I have to do this with the boys all the time. Sometimes I tell them if they do this that I have a secret. They get so excited they do what I want them to, then I whisper in there ear that I love them very much. Then they don't think it's that fun. But what they don't know (and I tell them this all the time) is that they will never really know when I will really have a great surprise secret. And they never want to miss out on anything that might be good.. :)

Kristin said...

I have the whole set of Junie B. that my mom lent me so let me know if you need any.

Murillo Family said...

Amen, Sister!

Sarah said...

I couldn't get through my day without a bribe or two :)