LIMA — Parents learned how to apply successful techniques used by school employees at home Tuesday during Family Fun Night at Freedom Elementary School using the pax Home program.
The program offers fun ways to keep children’s attention and get them to listen during class time. Casey Simon with Partnership for Violence-Free Families discussed six specific ways.
Using unified vision, Simon gave all parents a chart where children can list daily goals of things to see, hear, feel and do each day. Parents are encouraged to also put things on the chart so everyone’s ideas are included.
Using reward and reminder, a list of age-appropriate rewards for small behavior improvements are wrote down. For each reward, one cotton ball or something else to be used as a counter can be moved from the start jar to the finished jar. After the jar is full of small reward tokens, a big reward is earned.
“It teaches kids that you do not get paid for one day’s work,” Simon said. “Its not how life really works.”
Using a Granny’s Wacky Prize bag, parents can list different small prizes and put them in a bag when your children do something that deserves a good reward. They draw a card out of the bag to claim their prize.
Tootle Notes are considered the opposite of tattling. A small note is written to the child for showing an act of kindness or being helpful. A special place can be set aside to display the notes.
Beat the Timer is a game that may usually take too long or a child does not like to do. Challenging them to “beat the timer” makes it a goal.
With Pax Stix, different chores are written on sticks and the child draws a stick. This way, the child is picking their chore.
The ideas can all be tied in with using the timer to make it more fun. Items were given out for all six ideas for parents to start right away.
While the parents were learning the techniques, children enjoyed play time in the gymnasium and then everyone gathered in the cafeteria for pizza.
“We offer pax in the building and we wanted to give parents the resources at home to try it,” said Lima City School Counselor Angela Meyer.
Meyer said the techniques help parents get ready for a four-week Leaders for Spartan Success program that will be offered to parents later in the school year.
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