A Great Idea..

Wow, its been awhile since I've blogged. Seems like all we've been doing is going going going. Specially this month, seems like we've had some where to go every other day during the week. Between birthday parties, church activities, work and school programs..we've got a busy month.

But I guess I need to get back to point of my blog today. Last Sunday, Deon had this idea. Its always bugged us that our children watch way too much TV, so Deon sat down Sunday night and started listing chores the kids can do. Then beside a group of chores he but a certain minute of TV time or a certain amount of money. Its the kids choice what they want to receive from doing that chore. We knew that Savannah would chose mostly money b/c she doesn't watch that much of TV. Now Dalton on the other hand is different. He LOVES TV. He would sit in front of a TV ALL day if you would let him. What we got tickled about is that night when we were explaining this new system to the kids, Dalton spoke out and said "I can go days with out watching TV" Deon, Savannah and I all looked at each other and giggled. I replied by saying "really?" He then just smiled at me.

So this all started Monday morning. They both did two chores before school, which was making their bed and straiting up their rooms. Savannah wrote down she wanted the money for that chore, and so did Dalton. So this meant when he got home from school, he would have no TV time. Which is what he did everyday after school before homework. So Monday afternoon he comes in the door, and first words out of his mouth is "Can I change the money to TV minutes?" I just giggled and said "yes". Which he only had like 30 mins of TV time for that day, and they can save the TV time, they don't have to use it all in one day. But after that he did alot better. Specially after he saw Savannah was racking up with the money. She mostly only wanted TV time to watch American Idol. So she did save some TV time for that day, and a few extra but mostly chose money.

We've been so proud of this little system we've got going on. I think Dalton has only watched about 3 hours of TV all WEEK. Today, Saturday, he has watched a little bit more than he has during one day, but he saved up some TV time. Savannah has probably only watched about 2 hrs of TV all week, but like I said she doesn't watch a whole bunch of TV. Mostly listens to music, and plays her DS every now and then. I've been proud of both of my kids and how they've handled this adjustment very well. I don't hear any complaints from them when asked to do a chore, and most of the time they have done the chore on their own.

I so wish we would have thought of this along time ago. : )