I began a star chart as rewards for good behaviors to encourage more positive behaviors from my children. I also made a list of rules to emphasize the important ones. Laiken receives stars for helping pick up toys, sharing, and handling stressful situations without going bananas. Dylan gets stars for good days at school, not lying, and being helpful. Jack mostly just get sympathy stars. But so far our household seems more positive and less chaotic. Laiken has really responded the most to the star chart. She tries throughout the day to earn stars and often asks what will earn her another star.This morning I was in the bathroom blow drying my hair. We were getting ready to go to the zoo. Laiken rushed in my room screaming hysterically about Jack, her belly hurting, "everywhere", "too much". And many other random thoughts squished into one. After several minutes she calmed down enough to say, "Jack feed the fish!! Too much is everywhere! It will hurt their bellies!!!!" Word for word. Sure enough, Jack had fed the fish half of the container of goldfish flakes and it was everywhere. Although, sadly, he did manage to get the largest portion in the aquarium. The poor fish were swimming in yellow, murky, food-filled water. It was a terrible sight. Jack just pointed while I cleaned..."bish, bish (fish)!!!!!!!!" I managed to clean the tank this afternoon, but some cloudiness still remains. Laiken's little goldfish died and the big goldfish is swimming sort of lop-sided. I do not expect him to make it through the night. So I guess we will be back at walmart tomorrow. Oh fun!
While I was cleaning the fish tank, Laiken kept complaining she was hungry. I told her it will be supper time very soon, but for right now I had to finish cleaning the tank and put the fish back in. She said, "so you can get a red star?" Yes, exactly. Sometimes Mommy's need a star too.
