Make them a sticker chart and tell them they have to get to 100 stickers on their chart to earn their prize!!!!

I’m serious! This worked for Little Bug and the main goal in doing this wasn’t even to teach her to count to 100. It just happened.

At my wits end with her bad attitude, I succumbed to making a Sticker Chart for her.

We went to the local Fall Consignment Sale. Little Bug found a BIG GIRL bicycle and fell in love riding it around the consignment sale. I was at my wits end with her 16-year-old attitude. And…it all just came together…a sticker chart for her to earn her very own, brand-new, big girl bicycle.

As a general rule, I don’t really like the philosophy behind “sticker charts” for good behavior. I want my children to obey because they desire to please the Lord. Not so they can put another sticker on their chart to earn their prize.

But I started thinking about it and…I saw some positives to using a Sticker Chart for behavior.

1. 100 stickers may seem extreme, but that’s what we chose! If nothing else, this will teach Little Bug that life isn’t all about instant gratification. This girl is going to have to work hard for this bicycle! It was actually her daddy that came up with that number. I asked him what he thought and he threw out the number “100”.

2. Little Bug instantly became enamored with the number 100. She got her chart and started studying it. Then she started at 1 and started counting. She got to 20 and then needed some assistance, but once I taught her how the number changes at the 10’s she got it and started counting to 100 with the chart or without it! She still sometimes needs help at the 10’s.

3. Even though we are using this sticker method, we aren’t having to hold the sticker over her head to get her to comply and follow directions. If we noticed that we were having to remind her of the sticker to get her to obey, I would think this through again and probably do away with it, because I truly want her to obey because the Lord commands it of children.

4. She is 4. And 4 year olds are very concrete. And while we are teaching her to obey to please the Lord, I think she won’t truly grasp what that means until she is a little bit older. The sticker chart is a tangible way Little Bug can see the positive results of a positive attitude daily. She was SO EXCITED when she filled up the first row and ran to show her Daddy. Then she came back and asked me, “Am I almost there now Mommy?!?” I said, “Just 90 more to go!!”.

5. And, really, another huge reason I decided to go with this sticker chart is because before we implemented the sticker chart I was beginning to see that we were leaving this hard month of testing boundaries and being stubborn and my sweet girl was already on her way back. More on this to come.

I am currently reading Dr. James Dobson’s book titled The Strong-Willed Child and ohmygoodness, if you have a strong-willed child, READ THIS BOOK TODAY. So eye-opening to me that the battles going on in my house are extremely NORMAL for a strong-willed child AND what I am doing to mold and shape my daughter’s heart and redirect her strong will for her good, is right on with what this highly respected man    recommends after spending years researching the strong-willed child.

- Elaine