Lost His Marbles

As you read this blog, you will quickly learn that my third child, Landon, is quite the character!!  He is three years old and FULL of life!

So, after adding the fourth child, Caleb, we decided to try a new strategy to encourage and reward good behavior.  We started using marbles…it’s really quite simple.  We put 25 marbles in a mason jar, then labeled a second mason jar as “Good.” (I know you are thinking how creative that is! Ha!)  The object is that he gains a marble in the “good” jar when he is particularly well-behaved or when he doesn’t listen or obey, he has to move a marble from the “good” jar back to the original jar.

Now, one would think that the process of moving 25 marbles would be a fairly quick task, especially since the end reward is a swimming date with daddy at the YMCA (or YZM as Landon calls it).  However, for a FULL of life boy, this has proven to be a fairly slow task that has taken over 2 months!  (That is not a typo…I meant to write 2 months!!!)  We have had  A LOT of marble moving over the last two months…even a few times where he puts a marble in the “good” jar and takes it right back out without dropping it!  (I did mention he is a FULL of life boy, right??)  It’s been pretty funny to hear the constant refrain at our house, “Do you want to lose your marble?”…(I think I have lost a few along the way:)

Well, we are FINALLY pleased to announce that as of tonight, he only has one marble left!!!  He is so proud.  On the way home from church tonight, as we were discussing this, he says, “I am going to try to not go backwards anymore.”:)  So, maybe, just maybe, tomorrow will be the day that we finally get all his marbles in the “good” jar!!! (We did spend about a week going between 4 and 6 marbles left, so only time can tell:)

Here is a picture of him with his almost EMPTY jar of marbles…

The end prize of swimming with daddy was meant to be a solo date for him if he would so choose.  However, we have learned that his brother, Austin, is pretty persuasive and has convinced Landon that swimming without him and Brooke would be no fun, so they have now conned their way into the reward…