Potty Training: Day 10

Continuing on my quest to review our potty training adventures (and hopefully help a few of you NOT make the same mistakes I did) I bring you---Day 10.  I blog day 10 because we made a change to the reward strategy   My other blogs on potty training are:  Method, Prep and Reward Strategy, Day 1 and 2, Day 3 through 9

Goal:  Transition out of instant gratification type rewards and into longer term rewards.

New Reward Strategy:  Using a chart (see photo below), Addison places stickers leading up to a reward.  As time goes on, it requires more and more stickers to get rewards and the rewards get more exciting.  I am always looking ways to make things fun for everyone in our family and with the chart---everyone can join in on the fun.  And potty training needs some fun involved...lets be honest.  We also want to take every opportunity to teach the children about setting goals and achieving them.  I think this is something my parents really taught me well and I hope to continue to foster that in our children.  The rewards were very inexpensive because the point was NOT about getting her the coolest toy.  Here are the different rewards:

• Prize Bags:  Basically special looking stickers and/or something from the target dollar bin; there were nine of these and they took 4-5 stickers which generally takes her 1-1.5 days to earn (total cost about 6 bucks)
• Library Trips:  Two of these requiring 10-14 stickers and should take 2-3 days to earn (cost: free)
• Berenstains's Bears Book:  One of these requiring 12 stickers and should take 3 days to earn; she recently got into these books and LOVES them (cost: $4)
• Zoo Trip:  One of these requiring 20 stickers and should take about 5 days
• Pizza Party:  This is basically like a bigger chucky cheese that is fun for adults and kids.  When my parents visited, they took us there and she had a BLAST getting tickets.  She can hardly wait to earn the pizza party.  There is one of these requiring 24 stickers and it should take 6 or 7 days.

Treats:  Disconinued.  She only asked one time for them after we started the chart.  They give her a treat at school IF she goes :)

Accidents:  None since the first two days.

School:  She finally went potty at school!!!

Naps:  In total, woken up wet once and dirty twice

Bedtime:  She wakes up wet everyday, dirty once.

Success Rewards:  Since we ended the treats we give verbal praise for this.  She accepts it now---strange.

We are on day 15 as I type this and I am satisfied with the progress, proud of Addison and impressed with how well she has done!

What would I do differently?

As I write this, we are still on the prize bag portion of the chart, so I cannot say for sure that this has/has not been successful.

The one thing I would do differently, but I am not sure how is number 2.  She goes on the potty but I have to be creative about WHEN I ask her about needing to do this.  She never wants to sit long enough to actually go because it takes more than 10 seconds to go, unlike pee.  The time of day she goes varies so she is going when she needs to, but I have to figure out a way to get her to sit long enough to go or to be sure she doesn't need to go.  I hope that makes sense.