Today's Lecture: LACK OF COOPERATION

LACK OF COOPERATION:

We hit a bad patch for a few months not too long ago - lots and lots of complaining and tears and "why did I have to have a stroke?" Also, she was doing lousy work and I was spending most of the session telling her to cut it out and do her work. It took a while but I figured out a way to deal with her and it has been working for more than two months. It might work for you too.

I figured out how many exercise sets a week she must do. I know she complains about all of them so I broke them into their functions. We have two. She does her four sets of walks, and she does three different strengths. I figured, including known times off and making allowances for a missed set or two, she does something like 80 a month. I give her one point for each function she does that she does according to expectations and without complaining. So, theoretically, she can earn four points per day. She keeps track on a whiteboard we have at home. You can do stickers or whatever.

Each time she finishes a function she gets to mark the board. When she has 80 pts (about a month's worth of work), she can get a prize - something inexpensive that I normally wouldnt give her. Lately its been a month's membership in Club Penguin. But she is also interested in small jewelry from Claire's Generally I keep it at around $6 or $7.

So as not to put her sister at a disadvantage, I instituted this point system for her as well. At the same time we do our exercises, she will practice violin (if its a practice day) or perform a chore. This has been pretty nice too as we have a fixed time for her violin practice and I get some smallish chores done (put away the dishes, straighten out the kitchen, fix my bed, etc etc etc. She uses her points for the same things.

I also let them suggest prizes within the price range that make sense. They were the ones to suggest Claires.

Lecture for today is over!