Warm and Fuzzy Jar

I don't know about you, but sometimes we seem to be in a funk around Our Beautifully Messy House...everything seems to be going wrong. L and I butt heads non-stop, she ends up sitting in timeout repeatedly, I get frustrated and burn lunch, we start a fun activity and within seconds there's crying, it doesn't seem to end!!! Sometimes the funk lasts just a few hours and other times it seems to last days. The best way I've found to turn things around is to bring out our WARM AND FUZZY JAR. (Truthfully, L calls it her "Poof Ball Jar." Ha!) Whatever you call it, the jar can instantly turn a bad day into a good day. 

The principle is pretty simple: every time L does something good she gets a "warm and fuzzy" (poof ball) to put into her jar. Once the jar is filled to the top, she gets a treat...a trip to the ice-cream shop, to play in the sprinkler, a trip to the library, or, as we did this week, she got to build a gingerbread house. All these things would be fine to do randomly on their own, but not necessarily on a day that L has been acting out repeatedly. The WARM AND FUZZY JAR reinforces good behavior, diminishes bad behavior and is fun for the kids!

 Some of the things L does to earn "warm and fuzzies" include: putting away the silverware for me, playing nicely with her sister, quietly looking at books, helping at the grocery store putting things in and out of the cart, saying "please" and "thank you," and using the potty (we're in the process of potty-training). We don't use our WARM AND FUZZY JAR continuously...maybe just for a week or so...but when things start getting crazy, I pull it out again and turn the bad days into good ones! If you have multiple kids, each one could have a jar to fill. 

Try it out! Let us know if it works for you!