Batman, Hitting, and Homework

We are so blessed to have our two wonderful little boys. When we are having a bad day or feeling grumpy we can remember the little things the boys say or do and we find we are smiling in no time.
The other morning J called to Rock that it was time to get up. From a distance we heard a small Rock voice call out "Rock isn't here!" J responded with "Then who is that?" the small Rock voice replied "It is Batman!" We muffled our laughs and then J said "Well Batman, please tell Rock it is time to get up!"

So Roll has been in school for awhile now and he seems to be doing pretty well. One problem we ran into was with Roll's homework. His daycare has a homework program that he is involved in. This way he can have his homework done before it gets to late but more importantly he gets help from those who speak German to avoid some confusion we may have or cause. Unfortunately Roll's teacher stated that he was to do his homework at home with Mommy. Therefore when he was supposed to do his homework at the daycare program he promptly told them that he didn't have to since his teacher told him to do it with his Mommy. This was evidently a problem with others as well so the daycare asked the teacher to remind the kids to do their work in homework club.

Last week when I picked up Rock his teacher told me that he had a pretty bad day and that he had scratched another child, pinched, and hit. We talked about it breifly and I promised her I would talk with him. Next we went to pick up Roll were I was told that he too had had a bad afternoon refusing to do his homework. What a day!

I thought the entire drive home and came up with some ideas that I wanted to implement at hom but realized that J and I needed to be on the same page. As soon as I pulled in I jumped out and asked J to go up and talk with me upstairs where the children wouldn't hear. I explained what had happened and that I had a plan. We wouldn't yell or act upset, merely firm and consistent. The plan was that I would create a calendar for both boys. When they come home after we pick them up they will put a sticker on the calendar telling us whether they felt they had a great day, sad day, or mad day. Then if I received a good report from Rock's teacher that he had not hurt anyone, or from Roll's teacher that he had completed his homework....they could earn a star. Each day they recieve a star we can play a game, watch a movie, or anything else they may wish to do special together. If they didn't, Rock would go to bed directly after dinner and Roll would go to bed after completing his homework. On the weekend we will count the stars and if they earned a week of stars we can do something even more special such as going to the pool or to the indoor playland nearby.

So far this is working and although the first day wasn't so great for Rock, each subsequent day has been a great day for him with a star! The same for Roll although he sometimes still has work to do at home. Partly because he likes to do the homework with Mommy but sometimes there is just to much or too difficult for him to complete during their homework time. Let's hope we can keep it up but I will need to remain consistent with the rewards no matter how tired I may be in the evening. We have now created calendars for the morning routine so I hope it works as well.