Phoebe's Encouragement Chart

Every night without fail, before Phoebe goes to bed, we'll give her milk. Then she'll go to the toilet to urinate, brush her teeth, have a quick shower and change into her pyjamas. We have been carrying out this routine for about 27 months. However, Phoebe has a bad habit. She likes to procrastinate or find excuses just to delay the wash-up process so that she doesn't need to go to bed early. She is doing it out of mischief rather than defiance or challenge of our authority. We have tried to coax her using incentives such as reading of story books or watching a short children's programme. However, sometimes we lost patience and decided to wave the cane about. I must say that the latter was a very efficient method. The minute we wave the cane in the air, she will come immediately to complete her tasks. But I don't want to resort to the cane all the time or it'll lose its effectiveness after a while. Hence, I decided to try a positive and visually-enticing method and that is, none other than, the good old Encouragement Chart.

I told her that each time she completes her bedtime tasks, I'll reward her with a sticker of her choice and she'll get to stick the sticker onto her own chart. If she obtains 6 stickers, she can choose something as a reward. So far, the chart has been up for about 6 days and Phoebe has collected 4 stickers. That means, she has been cooperative 4 out of 6 times! That's a good sign. Last night, when Phoebe has collected her fourth sticker from me, she excitedly told me,

"See mommy, I have 4 stickers already. I only left 2 more stickers to get my present."

I was very happy because she was motivated to get her prize :) She has already told me that she wants to get the baby from "Baby Alive" when she collects all 6 stickers. I can't wait to award her with 2 more stickers! :) I guess I'm just as excited as she is. Hee hee :)