Our Badge Chart

I can't remember when I came up with this idea exactly.  I just remember being fed up with a certain behavior and I wanted to figure out a way to reward positively for the right behavior.

The idea at first, was that Lachlan would get a badge at the end of the day.  When Daddy came home from work, he would ask if Lachlan had listened well and ask if he had gone to time out at all that day.  I wanted Daddy to be involved in the reward process.  This worked great for the first day or two, but then we started to forget.  The badge was also so delayed and separate from the good behavior that it really didn't matter much at that point.

The Badges

So it evolved.  They each now have a badge jar out in our living room.  The third jar holds all the badges that are up for grabs.  When we see them act out a good behavior, we ask them to put a badge in their jar.  This is great, because they immediately get a reward. 

The badge jars in the living room.

Each of my sons have their own behavior that they get rewarded for.  Peter get's a badge for listening because, well, he's not that great of a listener.

Lachlan get's a badge for controlling his anger.  He has always been quick to get frustrated and angry.  I remember when he was tiny, the doctor asked if he could stack blocks.  He was checking to see if Lachlan had met a developmental marker.  I thought, hmm, no he can't because when he stacks more than one, if it falls over, he get's so mad he crashes the rest down.  Poor guy, wants to get everything just right.  He struggled with taking instruction from Mommy, for this same reason.  He thought he should already know everything and was upset that he didn't get it right.  This proved to be especially problematic since we homeschool.  So he also earns a badge for taking instruction. 

This will be their third time filling up the chart, and this time around, we are adding 'going to bed with out Daddy' to the badge earning list.

Somewhat unintentionally, we have used it as a negative consequence to bad behavior.  If they don't listen or don't control their anger, a badge can be taken away.  For this reason, I will give them a badge each morning, that way it is their goal to keep their badge as well as earn more. Even though taking away a badge works, I really try to keep this a positive reward system.

As they head off to bed each night, we take their badges from the jars and put them in the badge chart.  This way, at the end of their day, they can see how many they have earned and also see how close they have come to filling up the chart.

The badge chart.

When the whole chart is full, we get to go do something fun as a family. 

As we were driving home from the 3D movie they earned tonight, it dawned on me that their are a few more big time perks to this set up and their reward.  First off, they are each earning the badges separately, but all the badges go into the same chart.  This means, that they, as a family, are working together towards the reward.  Also, the reward is enjoyed together, as a family.  The reward is not an object, but an experience.  (Big positive for my house, as I do not need anymore stuff.)  It's also most likely an experience we would do and pay for anyhow, but when done as a reward, makes it that much sweeter.  Their first reward earned was a trip to an awesome pool with a water slide and all sorts of fun.

So let me break down the parts. The 'badge chart' is a pocket chart.  We got ours from a friend who picked it up second hand.  But these things are used everyday in classrooms across America and can be purchased at any school supply store and I am sure can be ordered through Amazon.
Sure enough, I was able to find one on Amazon.

I guess it's a 100 board pocket chart.  At first it was just Lachlan earning badges and we didn't want it to take forever for him to earn his reward, so we folded the pocket chart in half and stapled it along the edges.  So there are only 50 exposed pockets to fill. I might add another row or two to make it 60 or 70 pockets to fill now that 2 boys are contributing to the chart.

The badges are simply poster board cut up into squares.  I had the boys help me add the stickers to the squares to turn them into badges.  We used stickers from an awesome Melissa & Doug set we happened to have.  But of course you can buy stickers of your childs favorite things and make the badges meaningful to them. 

Pin the Propeller on the Plane

Pin the Propeller on the Plane.  Say that three times fast!

When Lachlan turned 3 we did an airplane party.  My best friend Kathy's son just turned 4 and his party is this weekend.  He is all about planes.  She asked if I would draw the plane and make the propellers for this game.

To say I was thrilled to do so would be an understatement.  Kathy has had my back and been there for me and my family so many times in so many ways.  She has many talents and skills, I feel like she does so much for me and I can never fully repay her.  Of course she doesn't expect anything in return, and that's how a true friendship works.  But still. 

Kind of deep for simply making an airplane game, sorry about that.  But Kathy, if you are reading this, Thank you!

So here is the super simple game.  My husband used to do construction and had a big roll of that brown paper you use to tape off the floors if you are painting and don't want to get the floors messy.  We have used this roll tons since having kids.  At their parties we cover the tables with it and put out a basket of crayons.

Today I rolled it out on our big counter and drew this plane.

Pretty easy to free hand.  I used a yard stick to draw the big parallel lines for the wings.  Used a dinner plate to make the circle for the body.  Two big Xs and little legs with tires.  It's not perfectly accurate, but close enough.

I made the plane a bit bigger than the last one.  So I had to try to make the propellers as big as possible.  I made them at a diagonal on a standard piece of construction paper.

The boys helped me cut some out.  

I pinned one on the plane to see how it looked.

I made a propeller for each child that will be at the party.  We can write their names on it and let them each take a turn pinning the propeller on the plane.  Then we can just look to see who got closest once everyone has gone.  It has been my experience at parties, that it's kind of hard to get all the kids to play all at once.  Usually there is one or two stragglers, little ones most of the time.  This way they can all play at their leisure and we can still remember whose propeller was whose. 

Father's Day Projects

I saw an idea by Jenae at I Can Teach my Child for a Fathers Day photo.  The picture was of two boys wearing ties and there were words put on the photo.  It said Lord, I want to be Just Like You, because They want to be Just Like Me.  

So sweet, it made my heart melt.  The great part is that I just finished up taking pictures of little Sammy and one of my favorite pictures is when Sammy crawled to his Dad and he is sitting at his Dad's side as happy as can be.  I thought of this picture right away when I saw Jenae's idea.

I made a few attempts at it.

I wasn't sure how to make the faded box inside the photo so I turned it into an 8x10 format with a white background and added the words at the bottom.  I had seen a stack of 8x10 frames at Lena's house (Sammy's Mom), so I knew this size would be good.

Then I realized I had an empty 8x10 frame as well.  I could not think of a photo of my boys right off the top of my mind so I started digging through files to jog my memory.  That's when I came across this gem. 

Can't believe I forgot about this one.  Jeff loves to cook, so this image combined with these words are just perfect!  I changed the words slightly to : Lord help me to be just like you instead of I want to be just like you.  Made it feel like more of a prayer which I liked. 

Since Jeff is not on Facebook I posted the picture of my boys and soon after got a call from a friend, Tobey.  She has a little guy, 6 months old, and wanted to take secret pictures to make a print like this for her husband's first Fathers Day.  The first one is the best!  You will see Kaemon in a bit and his cheeks.  

I kept on trying to figure out the faded box and came up with this one.  It is a slightly different image.  Sammy's expression is more content then ecstatic. 

Just yet another edit.  I faded the saturation and then adjusted skin tone and it gave it this really rustic look.

I printed the first 8x10 formatted pictures for Lena and I and when they came in the mail Lena took hers home and showed her older children Matt's Fathers Day present.  Her two older children are from her first marriage so Matt is their step-dad, technically.  But the first thing her oldest, David, said was, I want one with all three of us to give to Dad.  (Melts my heart yet again)  I have met some amazing Step-Dads recently and am so in awe of the love they have for THEIR children because they are, their children (Brett, Tim & Matt, I'm thinking of you).

So all of them stopped by my house and we just took a few quick pictures in my backyard.

Love, love, love.
Since Lena already had the first print with the other quote she thought it would be a good idea to have a different quote on this one.  She told me that Matt really enjoys the movie Courageous.  I got online and started searching for quotes from the movie.  This quote is from the final speech in the movie.

Note the new font on the one of all three of the kids.  When I was working on Kaemon's pictures I posted one edit to a Momtographer group I am a part of on Facebook.  I got some great feedback and one of them was to maybe pick a more masculine font since it's for Fathers Day.  Then I was introduced to Dafont.com.  You can spend a lot of time there.  Be warned.  I downloaded a bunch of new fonts.  Poor Tobey, I put her through the ringer.  I made so many edits and so many options for her to choose from.  Which is so hard, because he is so cute.  Let me show you.

First attempt with 8x10 format.  Figured out how to add color to the background and texture.  I chose this picture because it was the first one to stand out to me.  I asked Tobey to bring things with to the photo session that represents what Daddy does.  Daddy, aka Jordan, is a drummer and currently a cadet training to be a police officer.  So Tobey brought his drum sticks and a little play badge for Kaemon to explore.

 This was second attempt.  Putting the words in the photo. 

Next Tobey chose this photo as her favorite for Jordan's Father's Day project. 

 After a little help from the Momtographers.  New font and split the quote.

Still not sure if I like the look of the split quote I did one last one with it all together.
Glad I didn't have to pick, poor Tobey. 

Since discovering the new fonts I also created a new watermark.  Much happier with this one!

The worst part about all of this . . . I couldn't share them on the blog or Facebook, until now.  They had to be a surprise for the wonderful Fathers whom truly deserve to be celebrated this Fathers Day.

So I want to officially say Happy Fathers Day to Matt, Jeff and Jordan!  You are wonderful fathers.  A lot of love went into celebrating you today. 

Peter's 2nd Birthday Party

I know this is super grainy and dark but I still love it!

I’m blogging with minimal words this February. I’d love to see snippets of your life in photos too, please leave me a link in the comments.

Peter's 2nd Birthday Party Invitation

I am really excited about how Peter's birthday party invitations turned out.  Just had to share for those of you who aren't invited.  Sorry by the way if your not invited.  We have to stop some where.

We are throwing a cardboard box party so of course the invitations had to be made out of cardboard.

This is the back side.

These are the three options for the front of the invites.