Logtheplanet.com Family Travel Log

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This page will give some ideas that we have created on the fly to deal with sibling rivalry on a long, long trip. We knew in advance that just because we were far from the TV room at home, there were other things that our children would want to fight over other than the remote. Just as we had written a schedule of "who's in charge of the remote" at any given hour on any day of the week, we knew we'd need some creative tools for this trip as well.

The Star System
I once used this system while working with children on kibbutz just about the age of mine now. Based on positive reinforcement, it works like this:

At the end of each day, each child is given a check mark by their name if their behaviour was satisfactory (clear guidelines should be drawn out in advance). After three check marks, they receives a circle, after three circles, a star and after three stars, some kind of reward (not necessarily a physical prize). By doing the math you can see that it takes nine days for every star, so just about once a month you hand out rewards.

The most amazing thing about this system is that it works. There are a few things that you have to keep in mind:
- The behaviour guidelines have to be clear to everyone.
- Make sure they realize that it's not a competition. Everyone can get a check mark at the end of the day.
- The reward has to be big enough to provide motivation, but not too big to discourage the parents.

Diaries
You can check out the diary section of the site to see entries, but I just want to explain how this can help you children get along during the trip.

While traveling, children need outlets other than

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