Today was our first real day with AK. Shana LOVED it, and even tried to foist the program on John. Since he's 2-1/2, I'm not sure how engaged I want him to be right now, but we can play along because we'll want to get him used to the whole system.
Shana eagerly did her morning chores before I had to leave to go meet a friend for coffee. She also eagerly finished her school when she found out I was going to pick up a little friend for a playdate. By the end of the day, she had three tickets, which she burned on TV. It's her choice, though!
My initial takes are these:
- This is a good system to have her operating in a positive environment. She's not very moldable when she's been disobedient, and she really uses the external motivation to monitor her own attitude. I trust God He'll work with her heart. We have curriculum that is intent on character-building, so I'll trust God will use that.
- We can definitely have her work ahead on her chores, as a friend suggested last night. If she wants to set the table for dinner at 10 am, we can work around that. I want to reward self-motivation!
- Since she really gets it, I can see how this can work out negative behavior. In Step 2 of the AK process, parents get a tool to help kids self-monitor for negative behaviors to work them out of their routine. Shana's not drinking enough water, so the privilege pass would help us motivate her to drink enough water, until she's used to doing so and is doing it on her own.
I really think this system works for us, because it keeps the attitudes positive and upbeat. In that framework, we can really coach Godly character and virtues. It was somehow too negative the way we were doing it before. Believe me, we will still spank, but most likely much less often, because Shana has a way to reward herself for right behavior. Again, I trust right relationship and attitude to follow. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment