Rest time update

Right after I finished uploading my last post about rest time, I noticed it was awfully quiet upstairs. I went into Hope's room to find this sad little sight ...



Poor girl. She'd played quietly for about 45 minutes, but just ran out of steam. I hated to do it, but I woke her up in an effort to salvage bedtime. Happily, she wasn't a sleepy grouch all evening and she managed to go to sleep at bedtime!



The next day was not so pleasant. For whatever reason, Hope asked if I'd be in the living room (right outside of her bedroom) during rest time, and for some reason I told her I would be. Well, I guess knowing I was right on the other side of the door was just too much temptation. She came out 4 or 5 times, and woke Grant up in the process. No rest for anybody.

Mucho frustrating.

I declared that we'd go to the "chart store" the next day and start a rest time chart/reward system. Given her choice of a hundred different sizes/shapes/themes of charts and stickers, she settled on a tiny little beehive chart with number stickers. I could NOT convince her to choose the matching bee stickers. But, hey, whatever motivates her is fine by me.

For our first time out of the gate, I told Hope that she'd earn a sticker for every rest time that she obeyed the rules about staying in her room and not waking Grant up, and that after three stickers, she'd earn a prize. We won't do prizes every three days, but I wanted the gratification to come pretty quickly the first go-round. And, sure enough, she did it!

Hope saw a piggy bank in Target that she wanted, and I reminded her that if she earned three stickers, she could get it for her prize. Well, with great delight, I took her back to Target two days later to pick out the pig.



Yesterday she did not earn a sticker, for the first time since we started the chart. She was doing great and was on track to get one, but came out at the end and woke Grant up again! I didn't want to withold the sticker, since she'd obeyed for almost the whole hour. But rules are rules, and she wasn't upset when I explained that she'd be getting no sticker.

Today, before rest time, we talked about some things that she might pick for her next prize. And I reminded her that this time she needs five stickers. She did a great job and couldn't wait to add a sticker to her chart when the hour was over :)

I'm not all about bribing good behavior for Hope's whole childhood, but this chart thing is certainly helping for now, and now is when we ALL need rest time!