stickers rule our life

Over the years I have been given advice from many different people. Some you try out and some you don't. The #1 child tip that I absolutely love is STICKER CHARTS! When we potty trained our son I downloaded and printed a free chart with stickers from here. I didn't care where he placed the stickers on the chart as long as he was excited to do it. We posted the chart above his training potty so he would see it often. He never forgot to get that darn sticker after successfully "doing his duty".  After a month or so this chart went away as we no longer needed the reward.

Jump to real life...thank goodness sticker charts are available for many different behaviors. After our daughter was born 4 months ago, Grainger started to leave his bedroom to join us in ours. This would be okay if he didn't start his journey at 2:00am, have to walk down 3 flights of stairs and through 2 doors to get to our room. Plus, he is a horrible sleeper; punching us in the face with his elbows, kicking and tossing about. We tried reasoning with him (HA! try THAT with a 3 year old!), a little bit of guilt (saying "Mommy and Daddy are cranky in the morning when they don't get enough sleep"), and a few minor threats (putting a baby gate on his door so he couldn't get out). None worked and I didn't like giving the negative consequences for his actions. "Positive reinforcement" said our pediatrician one Sunday morning when we saw him at a local restaurant. Hmm....what could be a positive method of getting him to stay in bed all night? STICKER CHART! I downloaded a "slept in bed" chart, bought some Winnie the Pooh congratulation stickers from the Dollar Store and VOILA! He has stayed in his room all night for the past 9 nights. We are blessed (and rested).