Julian Can Do Hard Things

Yesterday I laid down for a nap after I put Julian then Ella Grace down for theirs.  I've been lucky in that they both nap at the same time.  However, I think my two and 1/2 year old is starting to outgrow his midday slumber.  I knew it would happen sooner or later as I knew my nieces outgrew theirs at 18 months.
Most days he will still take one, but I think his nap's extinction is pending. 

Well, yesterday a quiet hurricane swept through my son's room during nap time.
My jaw dropped as I beheld this sight when I opened the door to his room:

 WHOA!!!

Thank goodness that bad boy bookcase is nailed and double-nailed and quadruple-nailed to the wall like it's nobody's business.

 Well, I let those sleeping books lie until today when I figured out how we would go about rectifying this situation.  At first I wasn't sure if my idea would be too much for a two-year-old, but I decided I felt good about it and so I went with it. I got out my handy-dandy loose change jar and told Julian that he could earn one coin for each book he picked up and put back correctly (ie: standing up, not laying down) on the bookshelf.  In more exciting terms for a two-year-old, I told him he could feed his elephant bank with money for each book he put back. Then he could go to the store and buy a toy with the money he'd earned.  

After each ten books he put away, he got to drop ten coins into his elephant bank.  

Together, we counted each book and each deposited coin. 

After the first 30 books cleaned, it took some real encouragement.  He was ready to go play. He was over picking up the books, but thankfully he never tired of dropping coins in the elephant.  I only helped him with a few towards the end, and soon he had finished the hard job! I was so proud of him and I told him so, because I knew it wasn't easy for him.  I could tell he felt proud of himself too even as he was racing to move onto the next item on his agenda.  When Daddy got home just a few minutes later, I told him to run and tell Daddy what he had done.  He ran outside and greeted Daddy and gasped out between excited breaths how he had cleaned up all of his books all by himself (ish)!

 Now, unfortunately for me, most of my change is silver and not bronze, so Julian made out like a bandit.

I forgot to empty the bank out before we started, so I had to guesstimate the amount to actually take out of the bank when it was time to tally up the total. Daddy helped him count his earnings...

 $3.73 total.

 

We then went to the store and told Julian he could pick out a toy.  He had a tough time deciding on something (that he was able to afford) until he saw this super cool race car that doubles as a snack holder.  It was $3.49. He was all over it.

  

He couldn't wait to get home and try it out! 

This was just moments after we walked through the door...

Though he got a sweet reward in the end, I don't think he would want to clean up all those books again even if it meant he'd get ten of these cars.

Here's hoping the lesson will stick and he won't want to demolish that bookcase again...!

 I thought this would be a good preliminary lesson on the concept of money & earning it, and how hard work can pay off. To clean up this BIG job, I knew I needed some kind of fun activity during the chore to keep him on task, & that getting to feed the elephant throughout his chore would be a way to encourage him to do that. I have never before done this and certainly will not make this teaching method a habit every time he needs to clean up his toys, but it worked to clean up the aftermath of that hurricane yesterday:)