Keeping Order While Homeschooling

We've had school going with my 4 year old and 6 year old for a few weeks now and I've noticed some behavioral areas that need improvement. Some days, that's an incredible understatement and school is a complete train wreck. I needed a new idea to try. A friend of mine whose daughter goes to kindergarten at a small Christian school told me about the merit/demerit system at the school. I was impressed by the high expectations they have for kids that young. I expected far less of my kids at home!

So, I decided to try my own version of the merit/demerit system. I chose three areas where we have the most trouble: attitude, focus and fighting. I made up merit and demerit cards for each category. I also added a Proverb that addressed each. When I notice bad behavior in one of those areas, I don't yell (too often) or threaten. I just hand the offender a demerit. When I notice good behavior, I give a merit.

For my relatively compliant 6 year old, getting the merit or demerit itself seems (so far) to be enough to reward or correct. He's disappointed to get a demerit and that's enough to turn his behavior around. He's thrilled to get a merit.

My strong-willed, tempermental 4 year old, on the other hand, takes her demerit and throws it on the floor. Hmmm... She obviously needs more concrete consequences. So, I started giving her a 5 minute time-out for every demerit. Taken out of her recess time. We'll see how that works with her! I may end up offering rewards for merits also.

We plan to try a simplifed version of this system with our homeschool co-op (ages 2-6) where we need some training in basic classroom etiquette. We're going to write out some basic rules (don't talk until you raise you hand and are called on, hands to yourselves, etc). Then we'll have some green disks (poker chips?) and some red ones. Green is good, red is bad. It gives kids a concrete way of understanding when they're doing right versus wrong.

I just thought I'd pass it along to see if it might be helpful. Let me know!

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