When my kids leave their music books out, walk with shoes one the carpet, or do their chores sloppily (or not do them at all), I give them an extra chore. I realized that if a child is trying to get out of work, the answer to fix the problem is MORE WORK.  If they are trying to get out of work, they are telling me their motivation!  Assigning extra chores has worked better than anything else for this problem. In

I love to hear my children praise each other, but too often I hear criticism.  I think that is normal when people live in the same home! One thing that has worked for us is to have Praising Contests.  We certainly still have bickering and criticism, but hopefully it helps the atmosphere of our home to at least have a praise once in a while from a sibling! We have a laminated page on the fridge that says: Micah:__