A few weeks ago, we were at a loss at what to do with our sweet and spicy toddler. When people talked about 3 year olds being way more difficult than the terrible twos…. I couldn’t agree more after experiencing it ourselves.

Vivienne was having a hard time going to sleep, not napping, waking up at 5am and dismissing the fact that her alarm clock did not turn green (she was always really good about this too). She was not listening, disregarding adults, and we honestly felt like complete failures. As parents, we were equally frustrated and felt the entire house was turned upside down.

I reached out to Chelsea Kunde of Building Blocks Family, and she gave me some amazing tips on how to deal with Vivienne’s current behavior. One of the recommendations was starting a star chart, as she did great with this during potty training. So, we made a sticker chart that she would do for a week and if she got a full sheet of stars, she would get a prize that she picked out. She wanted an Aurora doll from Sleeping Beauty, that she ended up receiving a week later. We recently did another sticker chart (because there are always behaviors to work on) and she really enjoys putting the stickers on herself. The chart is nothing fancy, I personally made it with a sharpie and picked up star stickers from amazon… but you can truthfully use even fun stickers that you already have at home.

A few behaviors we put on the charts:

• Allowing Dad to put you to sleep (a constant battle in our house)
• Cleaning up the playroom
• First time listening to Nanny
• First time listening to Mom and Dad
• Sharing with Sissy
• Coming out with your light turns green in the morning
• Not screaming in the car seat
• Go to bed without screaming
• Go to bed without coming out of your room

I hope this was helpful to those of you looking for a simple and easy step to improving your kids behavior. Of course, we have good days and bad days… like everyone, but we always want to see her succeed. We give chances but also let her understand when she didn’t act right. If the day was hard, its okay, we will do better tomorrow.

xo, Lola