Our Biggest Homeschool Helps -- Part I

This post is for several mom-friends who wanted to know some techniques that have worked in our homeschool so far!  Feel free to use these ideas but make sure to tailor them to your child as you discover what their "motivators" are! 

Behavior Stoplights

Starting in preschool, we adopted the "Behavior Stoplights" to help reinforce desired school behaviors and to help demonstrate that all choices have consequences.  I printed out a blank calendar and my child (aka NoNut) had the choice to earn a sticker each day.  If he remained with a green or yellow light at the end of our school day, he received a sticker for his calendar.  If he received a red light, he would not get a sticker for the day.  If NoNut received a sticker every day that week, he would get to pick one item out of the treasure box (more on that below). 

I printed out stoplight cards to use for the year. Then, I created and posted our school rules on the wall.  During the first week of school, we always spent extra time reviewing the rules before jumping into the school work.  I placed the green light card on NoNut's desk or on the bookshelf in a visible area and we would proceed with our first subject.

If NoNut misbehaved or did not apply himself, he would get a warning.  The green light card was replaced with a yellow light card and a reminder of the expected behavior and what happens if we move to the red light card.  It often meant explaining what he was doing wrong and showing him the right way.  If NoNut continued to misbehave, he would get a red light and no sticker. 

At first, I gave in a little and let him earn the yellow light back with good behavior, but it got to the point where he expected to be able to earn it back every single time and he could totally work the system.  Rather than changing the heart, we were simply changing behavior.  So, for Kindergarten, we made it all nor nothing.  NoNut had to earn stickers every day of the week, no exceptions.  It was tough because there were some Mondays when I had to give him a red light which meant right off the bat, he would not be able to pick out of the treasure box that week.  Thankfully, that got his attention.  I always wondered what I would do if he didn't care and didn't try.  If he did try hard and kept green lights the rest of the week, I would do something special with him (play a game, read a favorite book, etc.) after school on Friday, but he could not pick out of the treasure box despite the tears and pleas that he would do better next time.

For first grade, we went through the school rules again at the beginning of the year.  But this year, we didn't keep a sticker chart/calendar and I was more relaxed on the behavior stoplights.  There were weeks when I had to revert back to using the stoplight cards so we could get back on track and redefine expectations.  But overall, I feel like we set the expectation from Day 1 of homeschooling that NoNut just knows that when we switch into school mode, this is how it's going to be.
 
The biggest secret to making the behavior stoplights work for us is consistency.  Looking back, our biggest downfall to using the behavior stoplight is that we did not do this for all areas of our life and limited it only to school hours.  A lot of power struggles and negative behavior would have been eliminated if we had done this throughout life.  Our homeschool is the only predictable area in our life that has consistency, structure and routine and a lot of it stems from laying out the expectations and starting out with the behavior stoplights. 


Treasure Box

The treasure box is a fun component to our homeschool!  Every Friday, NoNut gets to pick from the treasure box based on his behavior (see above).  We also let him pick out of the treasure box if he can say his Bible verses on Friday without any assistance.  We have used the treasure box as a surprise reward for times when NoNut has demonstrated super behavior over a period of time or for trying his hardest and not giving up when he wanted to and finally succeeding at it--for encouragement purposes.  And, we've also used the treasure box for reading incentives.  When NoNut finishes a reader, he gets to pick out a small prize from the treasure box because reading a book all the way through is a big accomplishment for him right now.  

The treasure box sits on top of our bookshelf so that it's not easily accessible.  We also make "Treasure Box Fridays" a big deal once we are done with our school work for the week.  NoNut never knows what will be in the box from week to week and that is half the fun! 

Target dollar aisles and the Dollar Tree are great places to find treasure box items.  Some things are a hit and other things are total duds and have been in the treasure box since NoNut started preschool a few years ago!  We also have friends who mail us homeschool care packages with little things that I put into the treasure box (those make the neatest and funnest treasures, too)! 

Here is what we have used in the treasure box over the years:

• Stickers (cut sticker sheets in half)
• Pencils (those are a total dud especially when there are other cool things to choose from)
• Holiday erasers (they were a dud until this year when NoNut actually started using erasers)
• Army Men
• Glow-in-the-dark items
• Bouncy Balls
• Mighty Beanz
• Squinkies
• Pods (?little tiny Star Wars guys in a tiny clear ball--those were good reading incentives)
• Toothbrushes
• Character band-aids (divide up in little ziplock baggies)
• Glow sticks (NoNut always goes for the glow sticks first!)
• Ring pops (always a favorite, but we try to stay away from candy more often than not)
• Pez (this is rare, but it makes for a good reading reward)
• Little craft kits
• Little character coloring packs
• Small toys
• Small sticker folders/books (Wild West, Trains, etc.)

...Continued in "Our Biggest Homeschool Helps -- Part II".