don't be too Board reading this

After the 9 week up-every-night-in-the-middle-of-the-night problem last Spring with Cameron, we have found that Cameron is very motivated by positive reinforcement. Ok, what kid isn't, but we have found our niche with this system - Rhett and I notice positive things that Cameron does throughout everyday and he earns things for his good behavior. He also starts out with five smiley face magnets and can lose them by not following directions. We have a few systems going, but they all work together and are simple enough for all of us to follow.

At first, he would earn a certain number of books when he did his nighttime routine correctly. For coming right to bed without arguments, he would earn a book. For brushing his teeth and doing pee pee's in the toilet without argument and mostly on his own, he would earn a book. For being reverent during family prayers, another book. Eventually, he also earned a book for putting pajamas on all by himself and putting dirty clothes away. So he earned a total of four books read to him a night. I loved it because I love reading books with him and it was motivating to him because he loved the quality time and reading books. It was motivating to him.

Now, he earns points throughout the day for being nice to friends and his brother, following directions the first time, not throwing fits when we ask him to do something, eating all his food during meals (he is the PICKIEST eater, just like Rhett), points for doing chores around the house, etc, etc. With positive reinforcement, the possibilities are endless so he can always be earning points.

Lately, he has been extremely sassy and not following directions right away so we have had to come up with a new plan. He actually created it when he got so excited about a longboard we saw while we were at the mall in the Vans store. A friend of ours has a longboard and would always take him on rides around our old neighborhood. Cam absolutely loved it and would throw a huge fit when we would have to leave. So right there in the Vans store, we made a new deal that he could earn points for not being sassy, following directions the first time and other good things. For every point he earned, it would be worth five dollars. Cam really had no idea about all of those logistics, but he just knew he would be earning the board in the end.

So after about a month, I found a board up at Zumiez in Park City that I thought they would love (because, of course, the board is for Rhett, too) and presented it to him a few days later when he had finally earned it.

I had the board hiding in my trunk.
Cam actually gasped when I showed him what was in there.


They had to ride it immediately, but I figured they would ease into it and just go slow sitting down.
I was very wrong.
I only had my phone with me so I didn't get very good action shots. You get the idea. He loves it and waits for Rhett by the window almost every night to go out on his board. Now his motivation is doing good things throughout the day to earn to go out on the longboard with Rhett every night.

Here's another day when I had my real camera.


Even Bren wanted in on the action.