A sweet learning opportunity!
I do not typically like to reward with sweets. I was planning on making chocolate chip cookies anyways so I thought I’d make it a teachable moment. Realizing it had been awhile since I last made cookies, I decided chocolate chip cookies would be highly motivating for the kids. Learning is supposed to be fun right? Of course, if you know me, I substituted healthier ingredients which yielded flat cookies, but tasty ones just the same. Needless to say, the kids were still highly motivated.
Several months ago we created a Family Rules/Goals List. I started writing down the issues we were having in our house and then turned them into positives. Example: We were having issues with children not looking at the person who was talking to them, and a lot of interrupting. So one of our family goals is:
“When someone is speaking we look at them, listen & do not interrupt.”
It’s important when teaching your children about behavior that you do not stop merely with what you do not want them to do, always telling them “No don’t do that”. You must also teach them what behavior is acceptable in place of the wrong behavior.
We have several of these types of goals affixed to the refrigerator. Throughout the week we’ll have one of the kids grab it at meal time and read it out loud.
So for the teachable moment: They knew I was in the kitchen making some sweet concoction. I handed them the Family Goal list. I told them to study the Family Goals and if they could tell me 4 goals by memory then they would get a reward. Also the older girls were to help their younger brother, since he is not reading yet. Here comes the sweet part…they are excited and working together to memorize our family goals!!!
Result: All children got a chocolate chip cookie with raw milk. Learning the goals better will create an extra sweetness to our family life!
Yay for sweet teachable moments!
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