They say necessity is the mother of invention, well, coming up with some way helping the boys be mindful of their behavior is definitely necessary in our house! The honest truth is, I came up with this idea one night when I was really frustrated. It had been one of those days. You know the kind of day when the kids won’t stop fighting, where they whine or cry when they don’t get their way, when bedtime takes twice as long as it should and you want to pull your hair out, or their hair out… really, anyone’s hair will come out if it will only get these kids to listen! Yeah, it was that kind of day.
When I had finally gotten them all in bed I was frustrated and trying to come up with a cool way to encourage them to think about their behavior. Then I remembered that both of the older boys have Good Behavior Cards in their classroom at school. The teacher has different card colors and you have to “pull” your card if you misbehave. The boys are always so excited to report that they stayed on a purple card (meaning you were a rock star student that day) and I figured I might as well try it myself. I want to tell you that my first attempt at this was as pretty and gorgeous as the option I’m showing you now… but that would be a lie. My first attempt at this was that same night. I washi taped cards to the kitchen cabinet door while drinking wine and crying about what kind of terrible mother can’t even keep her kids in line. The happy ending though, is that this was a great tool for us. The visual aid really helped our kids to stay mindful of their manners because neither wanted to pull their card.
To make your own good behavior cards, start by making a custom stamp out of a sponge. Stamp the front of an envelope or a small paper bag and allow to dry.
Just like at their school, our good behavior cards have four colors. Purple, green, orange and red. Purple means that you were virtually perfect or went above and beyond to do something kind that day. The boys got a point for every purple day and once they had 10 purple points we went to get an ice cream cone at the parlor down the street. Green was good, orange was a warning and red meant that you lost your special privileges (like technology time) for the following day.
