The Solution?

For those of you who have read my dinner time stories, you know that it can be rough in our house. So, we decided to take action. Not sure this will be the perfect solution because we still have a loud 19 month old and an almost 3 year old who doesn't completely "get it," but it is worth a try. At least hopefully it will work on the bigger ones and then trickle down…one can hope right? 

So what we did was make a jar for each of the 3 oldest. If they behave at dinner (no getting out of their seat, talking rude, blowing bubbles in their water, etc. etc…) AND eat all their dinner, then they get a marble for their jar. On the other hand if they misbehave they have to take a marble out. If they just don't finish their dinner, but are good at dinner, then they don't get a marble but they don't loose one either.

When they get 10 marbles they get to go out for ice cream, just them and a parent. This is a pretty big deal for 2 reasons; 1 they LOVE going out for ice cream and 2 they don't get to many treats in our house. We only have treats on weekends and only if everyone's behavior is in check.

So far Logan has 2 marbles, Melina has 1 and Meeka has none. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Our Marble Jars

PS - On a side note about food, those of you who know Melina may find this funny. Yesterday at school they had a food tasting because they were talking about senses all week. She told me after school that she did not try the fried chicken because she knew it was unhealthy and she did not try the carrot because she knew it would take her to long to chew and swallow (this coming from the girl who took over 6 minutes to chew one bite of PASTA last night!!!). This statement cracked me up…mind you she did not hesitate to try the chocolate chips though! :)