Alissa's world

Alissa's room is her little world. She likes to have stuff out and available to her at any given time, but I was becoming more and more frustrated that it was a wreck most of the time. I have been reading a book called The Child Whisperer, where you determine your child's energy  and then are given great advice on how to help parent them to their own individual needs. She puts people into four "types" to make it easier to talk about. I don't like labels, but the information is great! One I determined what Alissa's energy was, room cleaning has become much easier! A few helpful tips I got to help were:

1. Let her keep some of her favorite things out so she has access to them.
2. Make it a challenge and reward at the end. These types of kids love to see that their hard work is paying off!

So I sat down with her and told her she is welcome to keep out her stuffed animals and 3-4 other toys she'd like to have access too and then we played the card game and timed her cleaning her room. I then came up with the idea to have a 30 day "challenge" where if she beats the clock for 30 days (or 30 times total) then she gets a medium sized stuffed animal to add to her collection. She loves it and even came up with some ideas of her own as part of our room cleaning system. When it's time to beat the clock, I tell her exactly what she needs to do and she's off and doing it! So far so good! Now she has the things out she loves and the rest is put away (unless I don't keep up on it, then it becomes a mess again, but what doesn't if you don't keep up on it?)

Another thing I like about parenting to each child's needs is that I have started realizing that MY needs are not going to be the SAME as theirs. While I like things put away in the proper places, she could careless. So there has to be a compromise and I have to realize that they are not me and I am not them. Where major rules and structure apply and still will apply as they grow older, having Alissa's room spotless isn't as big as deal.

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