The Morning Grind

Update: I have fixed the link so you can now see "Andrew's Good Morning Checklist."

When I was basically living as a single parent for 7 months, I had to rely a lot on Andrew being a little more self-sufficient than a normal 4 year-old and then 5 year-old. 

The biggest task that I sought from him at his ripe little age was getting himself ready in the morning.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I did lay out his clothes every night for him and I set out his breakfast for him every morning.  But I had to ask him to get dressed, make his bed (in case I received the infamous call that we were going to have a showing), brush his teeth and eat breakfast all by himself.

We started by making a game of it - a competition of sorts.  Can you beat mommy getting dressed?  Can you be the first one to be done brushing your teeth?  But do a good job!  Can you beat mommy by making your bed first?  Ready, set, go!

The novelty wore off FAST.  I got props for about 2 weeks.  Then, nothing.  Nada.  He just didn't care.

So, I decided to incentivize our morning.  I made this - Andrew's Good Morning Checklist.



A checklist was the perfect solution.

He could remember what he needed to do to stay on track.  And if he was able to do all of his tasks above the thick black line, he could play until I was ready to hit the road.  If he got to play, he put a sticker in that box and then at the end of the week he earned a quarter for each day he had a sticker in all five boxes.

This worked beautifully! 

In fact, since we have moved we hadn't been doing the checklist...until today. 

Andrew looked at me this morning as I was laying his clothes out on his bed.  "I can do this all by MYSELF, mom!  I just really have to have my checklist."  If you could only see the glare that went with this statement.  I said okay, walked downstairs and printed off a checklist for him.

He was ready in five minutes.  Brilliant!