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Today I'm reviewing the IF/Then chart and The Blessing Chart from doorpost.  These are some great charts and they really help in your discipline and help you to stay calm when handing out the consequences.  I had seen these for the first time at the doorpost booth at a convention but didn't think much of it.  However when I read Terri Maxwell's book Homeschooling With a Meek and Mild Spirit I really became interested in the charts.  She talks about her struggles with her temper when her children were younger and how the frustration came because sometimes the punishment seemed too easy or too harsh and never consistent.  It was causing her to yell and not really know where to go somewhere with disciplining her large family.  The if/then chart changed all that.  It has the sin/bad behavior in one column, a scripture verse in the next column about that particular problem and then the consequence.  So for example if you have a child who was caught lying you would take the child to the chart, read the verse together and give the consequence for lying.  She didn't need to yell anymore.  It was just you did this, this has to happen now.  If they continue to argue then you go to the arguing problem.  If you have never done this before and your children are used to you yelling, negotiating, giving in, etc.  It will take awhile to adjust but if you are consistent and you don't lose your cool it really starts to be effective. 

The Blessing chart has the same thing except it rewards exceptional behavior so when you catch your child doing great things you can have a little reward to encourage it.  It doesn't have to be a gift.  It can be 15 minutes later bedtime, extra snack, etc.  Of course you don't want to reward for expected behavior but it is a great thing to reward really great things your kids do sometimes. Its really encouraging to them, especially in a character trait they need work in.  My son has really struggled with greed lately, (really bad)  We have really been working on it, I truly wondered if my husband or I was getting through and just recently I have really seen him putting himself second.  He actually gave something to his brother today that he really WANTED because he knew it was something that meant a lot to his brother.  Thats so exciting for a mom to see. 

We laminated our charts so we can change the consequences and rewards when ages change, etc.  My husband actually colored the black and white images so its really colorful now and the consequences and rewards are written in a black erase pen so they can be erased easily.  They are in our hallway!