Coin Chart--Reining in the Challenging Toddler

Can you give me a minute to explain this cazily excited two-year-old?

Some background on our toddler:

She is JUST LIKE ME.  The problem this has is that she hasn't got the filters that are a learned process.  Traits that are hard-wired into myself and now my daughter are our stubbornness, strong-willed, independent, and very certain about ourselves and what is right.  My kindergarten teacher called it "confidence" when telling my parents that it will be a good thing down the road (but a trial until then).

This need for control in our own lives is especially strong for this personality type.  Lack of control is very stressful and oftentimes scary for us.  We rebel to retain our control if we feel that we are losing too much of that precious commodity.

Finding a balance between allowing a two year old to have that control that she needs to feel secure and being a parent in control of that child also, well...that is what we are continuously working on.  It really isn't a one process thing because we are on our first kid and trial and error is the name of that game in every family (and for every child I'm told).

So, that excited kid pictured above?  Trial #3982350895oiwjf02894tyu2498....  So far it looks good huh?

That is a Coin Chart (behavioral reward/consequence learning tool).  **Credit must go to another blogger found via Pinterest**  She inspired me with her process and shared it with all of us so that we could adapt it to our families too which is exactly what we are doing!  The chart in our picture is finished and I will describe it later.

An overview:  I suggest reading the link to the other blog for it to be more developed description but here we go...Your child gets six coins every morning to start.  The daily goal is to have all six coins still at the end of the day.  During the day they have to 'pay' coins when they misbehave.  They have a chance to 'earn' their coins back by behaving well.  If they lose all six coins during the day there is a consequence (tailored to the child) that has to be REALLY bad...no tv, lose a toy, etc.  This consequence starts the instant they lose coin #6 and goes for the rest of the day.  There is no earning your coins back if you lose all six but you start again in the morning with all six coins so just keep reminding them there is a fresh start the next day.

If they kept or earned back their coins so they have ALL six coins at the end of the day, they get a sticker on their chart!  This is the long-term part of the system.  10 stickers gets you a goal/prize.  This means 10 days of having all coins at the end of the day.  (Not 10 days in a row but a total of 10 days...we count good things!)  Goals should be exciting and special and tailored to the child too!  Examples--trip to the zoo, special toy that they wanted from the store, going out for ice cream, etc.  Whatever your kid gets excited about (within reason).  As they get older the original blogger has a money value attached to the goal and they can save up goals to get what they want!  NEAT!

So here is our chart (modified because I'm stubborn like that).  We broke out the Cricut because I wanted it to be really nice looking in the hopes that we can use this same chart for years (just updating the decorations and coins).  While shopping for the supplies Alyssa got to pick out stickers for that side area and she chose Mickey and Friends.  We decided the coins for her based on those stickers since she has a tough time choosing things out of unlimited choices.  Our insanity:  We did Cricut Mickey and Friends for the coins.  A fun project that turned out pretty well but at 2.5" my poor hubby was very challenged to put them together...it took hours because of the small size for the coins.  The coins are 3.25" total diameter.

Mickey and Friends Cricut--Awesome job my hubby did!!

The poster is a full sized poster board that we covered in different papers to make it look less plain.  That white space (later filled by pink and purple) is 17"x20" in case you wanted dimensions for some reason.  If you want complete dimensions from me, let me know.

Our sticker chart piece is removable when full so that we can replace it without gluing more and more layers to it.  I used photo corners and a tacky/removable poster stuff (in the middle) to make it work like that.

The coins, we tried to use wooden circles (available at most craft stores very inexpensive) to give them a little more durability in the hands of a toddler but those are too thick to laminate.  Solution: thoroughly sand the edges to a rounded disk and only laminate the front and back OR don't use the wooden discs and just laminate paper coins.

Day One:  Introduce coins!  This is clearly a very exciting thing to a two year old girl who LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

She has lost and earned coins today a few times but we will try our hardest to find lots of good things to earn all the coins by the end of the day to get that first sticker!!  We are going to push the good stuff in hopes that we can reach a goal ASAP to really get this system rolling and fully understood.  I'll keep you updated on how this process works for us.