How Allie does a sticker chart.

As three year olds, there are many things that the girls do not quite understand yet. For example, Em and Anna were hanging out on my bed yesterday morning. They could hear Allie downstairs crying so they both asked me why she was crying. I responded with, "I don't know. I think she just woke up on the wrong side of the bed."

That was met with some funny responses from Anna and Em. "Did she fall out of the bed?" "Did she hit her head on the bed?" They had no idea what the expression woke up on the wrong side of the bed meant.

The same holds true for sticker charts. They have no idea and they actually don't seem to be all that into it. Part of this could be my fault. I now realize that I should have done some planning before jumping into this sticker chart business.

1. What are the exact rules for earning a sticker to place on the chart? We finally decided that you will receive one sticker if you stay in your own bed all night. For weekdays, all night means you don't come into my room until after my alarm clock has gone off. For weekends, I'll give you anything after 6:00 AM.
2. How many stickers do you need to earn something?
3. And what do you earn?

I've told the girls that they need to have five stickers and they will get a surprise. I am thinking of hitting the $1 section of Target this weekend to stock up on stuff. Is five stickers too much? Probably. I think I should have gone with two or three but due to poor planning, I have no surprises.

I thought that the girls would be more interested if they helped to make the sticker chart. That worked until I wrote Allie's name. She snatched it up, said that it was hers and insisted that Anna and Em needed their own sticker charts. (She was basically flipping out.) She then fled to the family room and did this.



And hung it on the dishwasher. She obviously doesn't understand that the sticker chart is not retroactive.



(Note that the light in that picture is from the sun not a pop up flash. I'm obsessed with this.)

I made another sticker chart and incorporated all three girls by myself so that there would be no arguments. It is hanging up high on the side of fridge. The first week's results will be displayed next week.