When Lizzie first started preschool, she had a rough adjustment.  We put her in a new preschool from her old one and she missed her previous teacher. Some mornings she would pout outside the classroom door. Other days she was so upset she wouldn’t listen to her teacher and this meant she didn’t get her good behavior stickers while her friends did.

I was frustrated and felt terrible for her. I was honestly tempted to pull her out of this school and put her in her old one. The reason I moved her to a different school was because this private school is for PreK-12th grade, so I thought if she is going to be here the rest of her education, might as well start early.

I didn’t pull her out. I began to talk with her and I learned a few things:

1. She loves positive reinforcement and meeting goals

2. She hates to be late to class.

She responds so well to sticker charts, but I didn’t know how to take a sticker chart with me to her class. I wanted her to be happy to arrive in class. The first thing I did was dropped her off much earlier. When she had time to get used to being in the school she was much happier – plus, she hated missing puzzle time and really hated walking into a room full of students. She likes getting there early.

The next thing I did was download the Marble Jar app on the iPad.  Every time she gets to school with a smile, she gets to put a marble in her jar. Hearing the clink of the marble in her jar makes her so happy and her entire day goes by so much smoother!

I have so much more to tell you about this app – it is helping Lizzie so much.  Check back later – I’ll tell you about the reward we set for when her jar fills up with marbles and some tips about using this app effectively. For now, I am so excited that Lizzie is adjusting and enjoying her new preschool!

I was compensated from Marble Jar for telling you about their app. All opinions are my own. 

This photo was taken using the photo booth application on my iMac, but it illustrates my point so well.

If I expect Lizzie to do something or refrain from certain behavior, I must model it for her.  “Do as I say and not as I do” simply does not work for children. Period.

I have a really great example that happened tonight. I was making the bed and my amazing 2 year old helper came to pull the blanket and straighten the sheets with mommy.  Every time she pulled a corner correctly I said, “Thank you Lizzie!”  Well about 5 minutes into making the bed there was silence as she was concentrating on getting the blanket nice and straight. I pulled it up from the top and she was on the bottom. When it was nice and neat she said in her pretty sing-song voice, “Thanks mommy!” Not being prompted, her simple two words made my heart swell!  Genuine gratitude, from a two year old!

Our children are mirror images of ourselves.  There are so many days when I don’t have structure. It is chaotic, to say the least. What really wakes me up is when Lizzie will get frustrated and act out. But if I am cheerful, peaceful and run the day in a (mostly) organized manner she is cheerful, agreeable and helps her brother.

Another fun example of the mirroring is a bedtime one. I was trying to get her into her pajamas and get into bed when she kept say, “Izzie stay awake?” I turned to her and said, “no! Now Lizzie get your pj’s on. You must obey me!” Her response was to run to the bedroom, look out the doorway and say, “Obey me!” Wow. I don’t think she quite understood what “obey me” meant.  I obviously was handling it all wrong and using terms that went over her head.  So instead I explained to her, “get your PJs on or you will get timeout. It is bedtime.”

Kids pick up on so much that we adults do. And it only gets worse as they get older.  That is why I am trying so hard right now.