The many uses of a toothbrush.

So as I am writing this, Mason is in his room scrubbing his bathroom with a toothbrush. Why? You might be asking. Well the reason is that my 4 year old has been suspended from school for his unruly and disruptive behavior. The theory is that through hard work you will break a childs will without damaging their spirit. Mason has lost all his priveleges and is now working to earn his keep. As a child his "job" is school...if he gets kicked out of school he becomes unemployed, so now he works for his dad and I. I thought it was pretty clever-and something we can carry out through out his school career until he graduates. He wants to act like an adult, now he has the responsibility of an adult-kind of. The idea came from a combination of my husbands experience at boot camp and a book I read called 'Changing You Childs Heart'. The idea is that instead of using punishments to discipline a child, we use what the book refers to as "betterments". Activities that require hard work that will improve the child somehow. In this case, he is learning how to clean properly and I get a day off. It also includes things such as refolding all the childs clothes if they don't keep their drawers neat or writing a phrase over and over again which would improve the childs handwriting in addition to reminding him or her of their bad behavior, they also sugguested jumping jacks and push-ups for hyperactive behavior. So far so good, he has cleaned his room spotless and now is moving on to the bathroom. With any luck he'll finish before snack time and spend the rest of the day in the kitchen :) Don't feel bad though, it's not like child labor or anything, he gets paid (meals, snacks, etc.) and at the end of the day we will be attending to our parenting class and going swimming. He doesn't know about that yet, but after 5:00 I am no longer his boss and will resume my role as Mommy. Trust me, he's rather be at school right now.