Mark 3:25 states, "A house divided against itself cannot stand".
Our house has been divided against itself lately. The bickering between the three children is non-stop. In an effort to teach them a lesson, provide positive enforcement and allow them to see how often they mistreat their siblings, I decided to try an idea I read about in the book: Creative Correction, by Lisa Whelchel. (Remember the show The Facts of Life from the 80's?, She played the rich girl, Blair)
The idea was to give each child the same number of lego blocks with which to build a simple structure. As the day progressed, I would award or remove blocks from their structure for either building each other up or tearing each other down. The one with the most legos at the end of the day, wins.
Reese won the first day and was awarded a special dinner with mommy at one of his favorite restaurants. He likes to go to European Street Cafe and get beer cheese soup. Sophie won one day and had a few hours out with Daddy. He totally spoiled her. Drew also won one night and he got a new DS game that I had picked up at a garage sale.
They all three have memorized the verse and I plan to keep up the contests until we get some joy and love in this house! Now that we have them hooked we'll have to make the rewards a little more inexpensive, but it is amazing how this simple exercise changed the tone in the house.
I'd love to hear what you do at your house when the bickering gets out of hand.
I love this idea, Natalie! As far as what we do when the bickering gets out of hand, it depends on my mood. If I really need a little peace and quiet, they are separated. If I'm feeling more like a lesson is in order, they all have to sit on the couch together with nothing to do, no talking, touching, etc. allowed. Alexi's usually not an issue with things like this, but Thaddeus is a button pusher and Truman has many buttons--they are the ones who bicker the most.
ReplyDelete