Kaleb's Jobs

No matter what I do, Kaleb is growing up.  He has learned to identify colors, count objects, and sing numerous songs.  His vocabulary continues to grow, and he is getting better and better at communicating with those around him.  He's also developing his own opinions and learning how to express them.  As a preschooler, many of his opinions are expressed through defiance, so I'm constantly looking for new ways to inspire Kaleb to do the right things: follow directions and follow the rules.

And I'm trying to accomplish this with as few tears (his or my own) as possible.  When several of the incentives I had offered weren't working, I started looking for a new strategy.  What I have ended up doing is actually recycling a tactic I used last summer when Kaleb was potty training: a sticker poster.  It's so simple, yet so effective.

During potty training, Kaleb would get to stick a sticker onto the poster on the bathroom door.  He was always so proud and excited to add a new sticker to the poster.  Last week, I created a new poster which is now hanging on the wall in Kaleb's bedroom.  It's a little more involved than the Potty Poster, but it also covers more jobs and is divided into one-week columns—enough columns to last us until school starts back next Fall.

Each job is labeled in words, for me, as well as pictures that Kaleb can interpret on his own.  They are lines up on the poster, from top to bottom, in chronological order as they occur during the day.  Most are jobs he will do every day, while a couple are jobs that occur less often.

So, what are Kaleb's Jobs?

1. Eat all your breakfast.

This is mostly a big deal because I prepare Kaleb's breakfast

every morning, and then he eats mostly unsupervised while

I am getting dressed and getting ready for my day.  To earn

this sticker, he has to eat all his breakfast without wasting time.

2. Get dressed by yourself.

Kaleb is old enough to get dressed by himself now, but he

sometimes like to make a fuss and claim he "can't do it."  Because

allowing him to stall would often make us late, I don't have the

luxury of waiting for him to decide to do it by himself.  To earn this

sticker, he has to get dressed all by himself without wasting time.

3. Be good at school.

"Be good" may sound like a very generic term, but it actually is one

that encompasses many responsibilities.  He has to be quiet during

story time, follow the directions given by his teacher(s), be kind to

the other children, take a nap at nap time, follow the rules in the class-

room and on the playground, eat his lunch while acting appropriately

at the lunch table, and cooperate with the instructions of adults.

He can get this sticker only on weekdays, obviously.

4. Eat all your supper.

The purpose of this sticker is to inspire Kaleb to eat his supper without

complaining and whining about being served something new or something

he's not as fond of.  We simply can't eat the same food every day.

5. Be nice to Morris.

The purpose of this sticker is to remind Kaleb to be nice to the cat.

6. Put your dirty clothes in your laundry basket.

Throughout the day, Kaleb has several occasions to change

clothes, and this sticker ensures that they make it into the basket.

7. Brush your teeth.

It's not hard to get Kaleb to brush his teeth.  He thinks it's fun!

The purpose of rewarding it with a sticker is simple to

reinforce the importance of this task.

8. Pick up your toys.

Kaleb doesn't have a lot of time between arriving home and

going to bed on weeknights, so this job only has to be done

once a week, over the weekends.  It can be a big task for

a kid, so since only one sticker has to go in this box each

week, he gets a big sticker for cleaning up the toys!

So far, we're having pretty good luck with the chart.  When Kaleb doesn't do one of his jobs, he gets a red "X" on the chart where the sticker was supposed to go.  He has a few of those so far, too, but I hope they will diminish over time as he learns to look forward to being rewarded with stickers for doing his jobs well.

And here's a picture of "Kaleb's Jobs" chart: