Behavior Beads

Silkies Necklace and Football, Soccer, Basketball Beads

I have a 4-year old little boy. Some may define him as "spirited". He is intelligent, hilarious, intensely goofy, sweet, thoughtful, stubborn, handsome, amazing, loud and the list could go on and on. I think he's pretty awesome. I love his crazy spirit, but at the same time he needs boundaries. He's like a shark, if Homeboy sees a weakness - he goes right in for the kill. Another words, like most 4-year old children he's capable of manipulation and well... acting like a 4-year old. We've tried some behavior modification methods like time-out, treasure box, stickers, etc. None of those really worked too well.

I came across the idea of behavior beads on another blog. I thought I'd give this method a try. We gave him a necklace easy enough for him to put on and take off himself and filled it with 7 beads. I bought the beads and necklace at Joann's. I used a 40% off coupon for the necklaces and the sports packets of beads were less than a dollar per pack.

The way it works is if he has beads left at the end of the week (on a Saturday), he gets a prize. The prizes range based on how many beads he was able to hold on to. The dollar store is a good place to get prizes. Plus, trips out to the park or a scavenger hunt walk or watching a movie with popcorn are also great prizes.

So far so good. He gets the concept and is looking forward to his prize on Saturday. I'll let you know how successful it is next week.

Want some salty humor about raising a toddler/preschooler? Take a peek at this post from Divine Secrets from a Domestic Diva.

Cheers,
Melissa