$10 is a good motivator

Its the first of March, the first day of Autumn and with all these firsts it is the perfect time to make some changes.

We have all been in a bit of a rut and after 4 weeks back at school, I decided that if I wanted things to be different I had to feel and act differently about them. And here it is.

I have created a bit of a competition around 'looking after yourself' as competition seems to be a motivating force around here. We are always busy, and the boys are tired, but we need to increase the focus on doing the right things first, and the 'fun' things second.

The new plan is that the boys will each make their bed every morning, they'll get dressed in their school uniform, pack thier bag for school and sort out any other things that they need for the day. They are also responsible for their sports bags and making sure they have a drink bottle etc for these activities.

The twins are now in grade 3 and have started getting homework. They have 2 weeks to do it and already in the first cycle, they forgot about it and left it too long and then got really anxious about it. I have made them create a schedule so they know when they have time to do it and obviously I will help them to get it done.

The final implementation is a diary. I have bought the boys each an A4 diary with a day to a page. The instructions I have given them is to write about their day, what they have been doing and try to get them to reflect a little on what they have been doing. What I ultimately want them to do is simply get in the habbit of writing and be able to write more, and quickly. Even Xandy in Grade 6 struggles to fill a page, so hopefully this new habbit will improve that.

Each of these categories will receive a score out of ten each day and the child with the highest score at the end of the week gets $10. (we dont do pocket money as we figure we pay enough for all of their  extra curricular activities) So there it is - all written on the fridge so no one can say they didn't see it. We'll see how we go but from where we are the only way is up!