and kids

and kids

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Bribery? or Motivation?

I've bribed my children before, so what? Lollipops after shots. A free cookie at the end of our Publix trip. The top reason: potty training. But now, sadly enough, we are past that.

I have a few sons that are charming jokesters. When Tavis was learning to talk he would say only the bare minimum even though we knew he knew more words. For the longest time he wouldn't say, "Grandma". One day she was ignoring him (to see what he would do) and he yelled "Grandma" out of frustration. The look on his face was priceless, he had gone so long with this joke he couldn't believe he blew it. And he wasn't even two years old yet. Can you say stubborn?

Fast Forward to Mac now. I've been frustrated with him as I've tried to get him to count and learn colors. I've failed him in that department - I'm sure the older kids knew these things way earlier that 3 1/2 years old.

Anyway, he has not done well on the colors. I thought, maybe he is colorblind, it does run in the family, but the other day, I was eating M&M's (yes, that is not on the diet) and he wanted some. I told him he could only have the ones that he knew the colors for, he got most of them right. Just now, we were finishing up lunch and I thought I'd play this game with Skittles (no comments why those are also in my pantry). He got 100%.

Amazing what a little sugar motivation will do!

1 comment:

  1. That is SO funny! yes it is amazing...we've had the same experience.

    Lucy was an early talker, but held out forEVER on saying "Sherry". I finally bribed her one day with one of her great-grandma's molasses cookies. She got a bite for saying it. I then withheld the cookie, until I called Sherry on the phone and had her say it again for her ecstatic aunty, then she ate the whole cookie.

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