Hannah has adored the computer ever since we started letting her use it to play learning games shortly after she turned three. She has really developed her skills in using the mouse and thinking about the games while playing. She can even get on the computer and go to the website that we have in our favorites for her all by herself – with being shown only once. She is REALLY getting good at the games for reading and counting. I am really impressed at her progress. She LOVES computer time and it makes her feel so big!
So… when I started getting frustrated this week with her needless thumb-sucking, I decided to use computer time as currency. She KNOWS the rule about “thumbs” but lately she has been hiding under pillows or books so I will not see her disobeying. Boy, that is willful and premeditated disobedience by definition!!! I KNOW how much she values that time of the day so I needed to use that as a tool to get her to obey.
This morning I printed off a page with a large “thumbs up” on it. Then I wrote NO THUMBS. At the bottom of the page I cut five tabs with the numbers 1-5 on them. I told her that the numbers represented time on computer. Each time I saw her sucking her thumb, I would take away one of the numbers and she would get less time on the computer. If I took away all of them, then she would get NO time on computer. Her eyes bugged out of her head at the thought of NO COMPUTER. But she liked the idea of a long computer time if she did no thumbs.
Throughout the day, I kept my eye on her… and I didn’t even catch her with her thumb ONE TIME! She was perfect! She kept saying, “Mommy, I can’t wait for my long, LONG computer time tonight!” It worked really well. She kept all of her numbers and I can use that same sheet for the next day! YAHOO! One successful day… how will tomorrow go?
PS… Grace (Hannah’s second mommy) let me know that she didn’t see Hannah sucking her thumb either! Quite impressive! :)
she looks sooo cute :)
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