Limiting the kids' screen time: Reward Stickers!

Salam Ramadhan and happy fasting my beautiful friends! Today is the 10th day of fasting month. Alhamdulillah, my Ramadhan this year is celebrated in moderation. So far, all foods are homemade; both by my MIL and myself. 

Anyway, my last post I had promised myself to spend more time with my kids because I want to limit their screen / gadget's time. Too much watching TV for Fahri and too much of smartphone for Naeem. Not good! I feel bad. Of course, as a working mom, I feel so restless everytime I reach home from work. But this must to be done immediately. Well, before this usually, the "Fahri, enough of TV!" and "Naeem, enough of handphone!" prohibition would just ended up by bad argument with the kids. They got scolded because they did not want to listen. But remember folks, they are kids! What do we expect them to do after scolding them? Sleep? Sit still? It is so sad if we ask them to stop watching TV but we do not give them alternative activities for them to do. What a shame! Yes, I did that too. Now, let's change before it's too late.

So, I did shop at Mr. DIY on last Tuesday. Anyway, most of my references came from this blog. Thank you!

Thus, What did I buy?

 Sports bottles for both Fahri and Naeem. Ok these bottles have nothing to do with any activities haha.. just thought of buying them new bottles (masalah mak2 sangat)

 Two containers for their blocks and Lego. I want them to be more appreciative with their stuffs. I want to encourage them to clean all the blocks after playing.

 Masker Tape for Train Track DIY. Ok. So far I have not implemented this activity for the kids. This one will be more suitable to be done during weekends.

 White board markers. The old ones are running out of ink.

 Color pencils for both FN (fahri naeem). Also stationary cases (mcm pompuan sgt pilihan mama tu, nasib baik x beli color pink but I just want to place the color pencils inside it). And a sharpener (very important).

 Drawing blocks and crayons. Everything needs to be doubled. I think this is very important if you have two kids or more. Be fair. Even I know Naeem might only 'conteng' on his drawing pad, but still, I don't want him to feel left out. It's ok.. let him just express whatever he want on the pad.

 Reward Stickers. My main topic for this entry. Will explain more down there.

 Stocks of coloring books.

 Sticker books for both FN. These will be used during emergency haha

Reward Stickers

Alhamdulillah.. Allah swt has helped me. I have read about reward stickers from Husna's blog but only managed to implement it since last Tuesday (3 days till now). I did not put so much hope because knowing my kids.. they are unpredictable. I was just wanted to give it a try. 3 days might be very soon to judge how effective this method will be. However, I can say that I am very satisfied with the outcome so far. Surprisingly. Especially for Fahri.

 Fahri's reward sticker goals

Naeem's reward sticker goals

So, I will give example by using my Fahri's reward sticker goals. For both Fahri and Naeem, they have a different set of goals. How to set the goals?

Well, you need to know on which aspects they need to improve or change?

For example: fahri's goals:

1. Read his school phonic book (more to revise his phonic reading because at his age, the teachers do not give homeworks, but as a parent, we still need to monitor our kids' progress).

2. Read Iqra (I set a minimum of 3 pages per day).

3. Brush teeth (twice a day. Because he loves kit kat so much)

4. Minimize of watching TV (by coloring / drawing / writing. We just choose one activity per day so that they won't feel bored doing the same activities every single day).

5. Cleaning toys / blocks after playing (this used to be the hardest part for me)

6. Pray / Solat

7. Love / Hug / Kiss Adik Naeem

8. Sleep early (also a big problem for Fahri).

Goal no 1: Read A Ba Ca book

 So, I pasted the goals' schedule on my kitchen wall (make sure it's high enough for them not to take it down haha) and asked Fahri "Fahri nak tampal star stickers tak kat sini?".. Suddenly he was all excited =) Same goes to Naeem. So I said "ok.. so kalau nak tampal sticker, fahri kena buat task ni dulu. ok?" "ok! ok mama!" So, the first task was revising his school phonic's book. I switched off the TV and walla! He was more excited to complete the task. I monitored his reading, for two pages, just for a start. He excitedly completed it. Yeayy, first sticker for Fahri.

Goal no 2: Read Iqra

 I found that he almost forgot few Hijaiyah alphabets. See.. by doing this we also can monitor his progression. Oh I really felt bad about this. I should have done this earlier because he used to be very good with Alif Ba Ta.

Goal no. 3: Brush Teeth

 He did it dengan penuh semangat haha. I've never seen him brushing his teeth happily kihkih

Goal no 4: Drawing / Coloring / Writing

 Activity day 2: coloring. The first day, I asked him to write ABC alphabets. He enjoyed both activities.

Goal no 5: Cleaning blocks / toys

 It really worked! This used to be the hardest part for him to do. But hey... the reward sticker really made him impatiently to complete the cleaning task. Good Job Fahri!

Goal no 6: Solat

Also, surprisingly he completed the solat. Kali ni siap dengan bacaan rukuk, sujud lagi haha first time mama dengar.

Goal no 7: Love Adik

Ok. So he just kissed and hugged adik. And for this task, we can try advise both FN not to fight all the time. Love each other. It lasted for half an hour haha

Goal no 8: Sleep early

Even though not too early, but it was earlier than usual.

Well, even though he completed all the tasks just to get as many stickers as possible, but I think at least we can reduce scolding. It seemed that my boys are enjoying it right now. But, be patient, some goals' achievement might not up to your expectation, do not force them. Let them enjoy the activities accordingly to their pace.

Once they are growing older, when they already know the shoulds and shouldn'ts, we can change the reward from stickers to pahala (by explaining to them pahala is a reward from Allah swt). InsyaAllah. Good luck!