What do you do for a bunch of uncooperative kids? Throw them a "Soda Party"!"SODAS" is a problem solving concept that we learned from Nicholeen Peck at a homeschool conference a few years ago. We were so impressed with her message that I soon after purchased her "Teaching Self Government" seminar on CD and even e-mailed her directly for specific problems. Her methods proved to work successfully in our home - that is as long as us parents were consistent (honestly, that is the hardest part).
I suppose I could write some sort of a proof to blame our growing list of behavior problems on all the changes we've experienced in the last year but I don't have time for that. Instead I'll share our attempt at solving them.
Besides working on the 4 basic skills , we set up a little snack time party complete with bubble blowing, lime tortilla chips, Jones Sodas and a poster to explain "SODAS". Here's an example of how it works(ed):
Situation - "I do not want to read and report on a boring article from the homeschool binder"
Options - "I could sit on the couch and complain about it, or I could just do it"
Disadvantages - "If I sit on the couch all day and complain about it I'll miss out on snack time and free play with my brothers, it would be a really boring day and I'd still have to complete the assignment tomorrow"
Advantages - "If I don't do it I won't be tortured by the boring article and my hand won't ache from answering all the questions but if I do do it I might learn something interesting about the world and even better I could have more time to play"
Solution - day #1 "I don't care if I sit on the couch all day without snack or free play"
day #2 "I guess I should do it really quickly"
I am happy to report that the assignment was finished before breakfast without complaint.
Thanks Nicholeen!
Love it! I'll have to check that site out. Oh, if I could just master consistency in my parenting things would really go smoothly most days. It is hard not to take on too much of the responsibility of my kid's school when they really need to be taking on more responsibility (did that sentence make sense? it is late) - I'm so grateful to be able to tap into other homeschool families through blogging and see what they do.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your ideas. I feel a bit lonely sometimes in this homeschooling adventure!
Situation: I have 6 to 8 loads of laundry to do.
ReplyDeleteOption: I could do the laundry and get it done, or I could keep wasting time online.
Disadvantages: If I don't do the laundry it will pile up and I will be exhausted if I don't do it right now.
Advantages: If I do the laundry we will have a clean house and clean clothes ...
Notice I am STILL blogging!!!
That's pretty cool!
ReplyDelete