Off-trail short cut through Ms. Debbie’s yard

If Mom nags, it doesn’t count.

Mom better zip it.

But it does count if my child decides to move faster because he wants to.

Time Timer

So we have backward chained with a Time Timer and a list (both verbal and written).

And we have practiced moving faster.

Oh, but this morning, something new happened.

Yesterday morning’s Mom-prompted-“Let’s-run-we-are-late-for-the-bus”

was remembered.

Mom said nothing (victory for Mom),

John heard/thought/remembered something (hurray for whatever that was!).

And he just took off running, yelling, “we are late for the bus! Hurry, Mom!”

We have built in environmental time reminders and awareness.

Like when the earlier bus goes by, picking up older kids.

And we talk about how many minutes go by.

(Use real minutes.  Never say “5 minutes” and let it go to something longer.

We use 3 minutes when we mean 3 minutes.

We have backward chained so I can hold up 3 fingers.

He knows what that means, no matter if we are outside, inside, alone or with others.)

John is intensely intrinsically motivated NOT TO MISS the morning school bus.

And at our first corner, he chose to go off trail, taking a short cut through a neighbor’s yard.

Oh, I love it when he does anything new: problem-solving, critical-thinking, off-trail!

Not stuck in a rut.

So, once again, the issue is the joy of the child, to do what he wants to do.

And may I add, clever manipulation of that intrinsic motivation to offer choices for success.

Peace to our village,

Gayle