Scott Family Responsible Child Boot Camp: Day 1

Good Morning!  We are ready for this.  If you want to know more about the Scott Family Responsible Child Boot Camp, then head on over to yesterday's post for an explanation.  The kids have known about it for at least a week, so today is the big day.  We practiced our morning routine last night, giving each child a chance to act out what they have to do.

They are to wake up, make bed, get dressed, and put away PJs.  Easy, right?  Um...we'll see.  I'll let you know how that goes.  :)  If it doesn't go well, no biggie, we are just going to practice it several times.

Then we will do breakfast.  Breakfast is where we will continue to train on manners, explaining all the things I listed in yesterday's post about table manners.  We will obviously be enforcing the manners each time we eat.

Next is the Bathroom song!  Thanks to hubby, we have made a poster and a song that I will teach the kids.

The Bathroom Song 

(sung to the tune of Row, Row, Row your Boat)

Potty, Wipe, Close and Flush

All Because we're Big!

Wash and Dry and Clean Things Up,

Because I'm not a PIG!

We are going to the bathroom and we are going to sing our hearts out in all different voices...singing like a British woman, singing like a gruff man, singing like an opera singer, singing like robots, singing like a country star...all the while giving each kid a turn to practice.  Anytime a child enters the bathroom for the next week, they will have to sing this song loud enough for all to hear.  (The "wipe" in the song, by the way, is to wipe any missed pee off the rim of the toilet!)

Code Word Calling: This is a sort of game where the kids will pick a code word.  When they hear the code word from me, they will come running to my side.  I will use this code word at various times through the day, giving a sticker to each child that comes to my side immediately.  This kind of training has worked for us in the past, we just got lax on it.

Next we will take a minute (literally) to practice sitting still and quiet.  I will have stickers in my apron pocket and we will time the kids sitting still and quiet for 60 seconds.  Just for now, we will call this our Quiet Game.  Next time we play it, the kids will sit for 2 minutes.  Then 3.  That is all for today.  Tomorrow we will work it up to 4, 5, and 6 minutes, all the way to 15 minutes on Friday.  So, if one of them talks during the minute, we start over.  When the time is up, they get a sticker.

Next will be a timed race called "TIME TO GO!"  (you have to holler the name of the game...not just say it.)  The kids will be racing against themselves, I will time them, but they won't be competing against each other.  So here is the premise.  They will be barefoot and playing and I will yell "TIME TO GO!" and that is like a secret code phrase that means they are to rush as fast as they can, put on socks and shoes (God forbid I say that in the wrong order around here and say "shoes and socks" cause socks MUST go first!  haha!) and grab Pink Piggy in the case of LittleK, and rush to stand by the front door.  We will do that race several times to try to get the fastest time possible.  We will be doing this a couple times each day.

By this time, we will need a break, so we will be having Tea With the Queen of England.  This is basically a tea party with real tea and cookies, where we will be practicing our table manners again. Napkins in laps and everything.  But before the fun can begin, we will be practicing and role playing proper greetings both in English and in Spanish.  Practicing looking in the eye, speaking clearly, all that jazz.  Then comes the fun of cleaning it all up.

We will then do another round of the the Quiet Game for 2 minutes.

The Interrupting Game is another role playing game where we will take turns learning how and when to (or not to) interrupt.  Like practicing saying "excuse me," etc.  My mom taught me a couple of hand signals to use when a kid is interrupting...Hold up a finger for wait here, fold your fingers over your other hand for go sit down, letting the child know what they need to do.  I will first explain the signals, then we will practice them, letting each kid be the adult.  I will of course have to start using those signals around the house with them.

The next game is going to be the Messy Scavenger.  I'm going to place messes throughout the house (piles of clothes, piles of toys, books dumped over, but all mixed up) and the kids are going to have to work together to pick up the mess as fast as possible.  Once the mess is cleaned up, they can run to me (as a team) and get a clue as to where then next mess will be.  Once all the messes are cleaned up, they get a treat!  Probably a sucker, depending on how close we are to lunch at this point.

After that we will play "TIME TO GO!" again, just to review.  :)

Lunch will be another practice with manners, as well as cleaning the kitchen.  While waiting for lunch to be ready, we will play the Quiet Game again, this time for 3 minutes.

After lunch, we will just review any games or things that the kids had trouble with in the morning.  We will for sure play Code Word Calling and our Bathroom Song several more times.

Then tonight at bath time, we will just practice and enforce picking up the bathroom after a bath, as well as hanging up towel.  We won't really have a game for this or morning routines, just being intentional about doing it correctly every night/morning.

Suggestions?  Ideas? Thoughts?  Love to hear them!