Hard Work Pays Off!

Over the last month Nathan, and the rest of our family, has learned a valuable lesson. Hard work truly pays off.  At the beginning of the school year, Nathan was having a hard time, he was having a lot of meltdowns, cursing, and yelling out in class.

After a month of hard work by Nathan and
us, Nathan's fort is finally finished!

Nathan has a dream of one day becoming an architect and building a tree house for him to live in.  This is actually more than a dream, it's an obsession!  So, one of Nathan's therapists recommended building a smaller tree house or fort in the backyard as a reward for good behavior.  Nathan has been working really hard, trying to making good choices and control his temper in school and at home.  If he did well during the week, on the weekend we would work on building it.  Jason, my dad and I started working on it a month ago.  It was still warm out.  This weekend, four weeks after we started, wearing hats, coats and gloves, we finally finished (well, finished construction, we still need to finish working on the base and building up the ground around it).  Nathan is so excited.  Actually, I haven't seen him this excited about something that wasn't a computer, video game or Spongebob Squarepants in a long time.

The best part is, even though we've finished building, we can still use it as a reward.  One of Nathan's favorite things to do is to swing.  His occupational therapist says it helps calm him.  So we can use the swing and the fort as an ongoing reward.  If he makes good choices at school, he will be allowed to swing when he gets home.  He will be allowed to climb his rock wall.  He will be allowed to go down his slide.

Rewards can be anything or anywhere.  Think about what your child is really passionate about and use it!