Love Reports

As I'm sure just about every set of siblings tends to do, the girls aren't always 100% kind to one another. It's pretty rare that they quarrel, but for whatever reason, this past summer it got a little out of control. It seemed like all I did was nag them to, "be kind", "share", "don't hit your sissy!"

Thankfully, at a MOPS meeting last year we had a guest speaker, the founder of Behavior Boosters. I will admit, I was skeptical at first. I'm usually not one to go for a bunch of tricks and games to get my kids to behave, but I figured I'd give the "Love Report" booster a try... what was there to loose? :)

The idea is that rather than tattling, telling, griping, etc about each other, they are to look for the good in each other (and all around them, as it turns out) and come to me to 'report' on whatever loving action or deed they witnessed. For every report, we write down the loving action/deed and who did it. Once enough reports are collected (we spelled out the word LOVE on the fridge), the game is over. I didn't tell them until we were close to finishing, but I had planned to do something special for them once we completed it.

I'm happy to report that it was a huge success. At first, small actions earned them a love report (eg: "Campbell scratched Rosie's tummy and that was loving!"), but as it went on, we required a little more of them (eg: "Ellie happily gave Campbell the last cup of yogurt even though she wanted it"). It took us about 2 months to spell out the whole word and when they finished it, I surprised them with a trip to a paint-your-own-pottery place, which was a huge hit.

I think the best part of doing this is that they really did seem to start looking for the good in each other (and me, and Daniel, and even Rosie! (Rosie had a few reports for 'being helpful and cleaning up the crumbs'! ha)). Even though it's been months since we finished, they still often come to me and say, "Sissy did (fill in the blank), and that was so loving!".

Putting up the last Love Report

Proud of their accomplishment!

We had never been to a pottery place before and they were so excited about all the choices! Here they are enjoying their reward:

Ellie chose a mermaid and painted it to look like Ariel

Campbell chose an egg and painted it with every color of paint we had at the table. She's so funny.

Here are our masterpieces after they were fired. Such a fun day and a fun experience all the way around!