Schedules and Habits

You all know that I am a person who loves schedules and I've notice that life around our house goes so much smoother when we have schedules/routines and follow them.  Part of the routines are in place to build good habits with my children.

Olivia has had a horrible habit of getting up at all hours of the morning and begging to watch TV and drink chocolate milk.  When I say all hours I truly mean all hours.  This past week I was woken up at 3am and at 5am with these requests.  Beyond tired, I decided it was time to fix this.

I made up a little schedule of simple pictures for Olivia to follow.  I moved my alarm clock into her room and set it up to ring (with classical music) at 7:00 am.  She knows that she can not leave her room until the music plays.  Second she must make her bed, say her personal prayers, and go potty all before she gets mom and dad.  We're still working on her following this to a T, but I've seen a HUGE improvement.

A few days ago I heard the music playing in her room but Olivia hadn't come out yet. This being rather odd, I went in to check on her.  She was still laying in bed and pleaded to me, "Mom, don't turn off the music, I'm listening to it!"

Hopefully soon waking and immediately making her bed and saying her prayer will become life long good habits for her and no more middle of the time requests for TV shows.