Miracle MusicA couple of years ago my mom gave me an article she clipped out of a newspaper she had picked while traveling through Salt Lake. The article was about a program called Children's Miracle Music. I was so impressed with the idea that I purchased the program online and we have been using it on and off for 2 years.
How it works: It comes with two cds, one for the morning and one for the evening. There are 8 things to do on the morning cd and 4 at night. For example, the cd would annouce that it is time to make your bed, get dressed and put your pjs away, eat breakfast, do your act of kindness etc. The kids have one song (or 7 short ones for breakfast) to complete the task. If they complete it by the end of the song, they get 1 point. The points are recorded each day and when the child earns 100 points they get a predetermined date with mom or dad. We ussually stick to inexpensive dates, but every now and then we will splurge.
I love the program because it eliminates nagging. We do take breaks from using the cds every few months, but when I feel like I'm nagging all the time to get the kids to do stuff, we start using the cd again. I never have to nag! We just play a fun game that allows them to earn a date.
Acts of Kindness: I mentioned that one of the points the kids can earn is for completing an act of kindness. Both the morning and evening cds have act of kindness on them. A couple of friends that I know said that they started assigning their children to be in charge of one room for a week. So, for the morning act of kindness, the kids are in charge of their rooms and in the evening they are in charge of another room in the house for one week. Each day they do a general straightening and then something else, like dusting, depending on the day of the week (ie Monday: dusting, Tuesday: vacuuming, etc.). The room have been cleaned better than they have in a long time, because the kids are alotted a certain amount of time on the cd. So, when it is their dusting day, if they get done with the furniture, they dust the floorboards! It had been fantastic.
Beans
Thanks to Jessica, we have also started the bean program. The children decorated their own container and I bought a bag of white and a bag of black beans. When we notice them doing something kind, or helping out, they get a white bean in their container. If we observe poor behavior or choices, they get a black bean. Once they have earnied their date, we count the beans. One white bean gets removed for every black bean they have. We count up the left over white beans and then trade them in for a quarter a piece. They pay tithing and then can use the rest of their money on their date.
So, that in a very large nutshell, is the Larsen program! For more info on the Miracle Music Program, visit http://www.childrensmiraclemusic.com
3 comments:
Allison I love these ideas, I have been looking for a new chore idea since school started. Is it easy to keep up with the beans?
I found you from Nickelles blog and then I found of course Maria and left her a message as well. I feel like a whole new world of bloggers have opened up! Ha. Well how fun, now I can keep tabs on you as see what you do when your not working out with us.
Allison, I've been thinking about the beans too when I saw them at Jessica's for Lisa's baby shower a few weeks ago... I don't think i would be able to keep up with it though... You'll have to tell me how it goes! We are going to be doing chore cards (again) this time I made some up for Brendan, he was too little when we we did it the first time around. I'm really excited about it this time, Tom & I have made some chances to "improve" it. it should be fun for all of us! -- Hopefully i won't be having to pick up sooo many toys at the end of the day! :o)
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