Ticket Master

I have another hero to add to my list. I hope that soon she will be a mentor as I am planning to join her ISP. I met her at the convention and fell hopelessly devoted to her when I heard her speak.

Debe Haller is a seasoned homeschool mom of 4 (in addition to homeschooling grandchildren, nieces and nephews), founding administrator of Hope Christian Academy, writer, loving wife and mother. Through her book, "The Challenge of Raising Cain: Creative Ways to Get Children to Cooperate," she has equipped me with just the right tool to teach my children (particularly Noah) the lessons of inner motivation and self-government. The book is mainly a manual about the Ticket System, but also includes other great parenting insights and tools. I will soon be incorporating the ever-inventive Job Card system as well.

I think that somewhere in my 6 year history of being a mommy, I may have had the inkling of establishing some kind of ticket system for Noah. I mean, when I was growing up I practically spent every summer at Vacation Bible School! I knew about the motivation aspect--earning and saving in anticipation to shop for prizes. But, I just couldn't imagine the scope of cooperation and organization this system would inspire in our family. It is amazing the extent to which this type of reward system benefits all parties.

After trying the ticket system this past week, I have figure out something profound (at least in my mind). I have learned that to every action a child does, there is a spectrum of correlating emotional responses. The problem was, that before the ticket system was in place, I only responded in basically 3 tones: pleasant, annoyed, & yelling (stern, authoritative). And to make matters worse, my kids hadn't any real way of knowing what response they would elicit from me until maybe tempers flared and feelings were hurt. But the tickets are a more tangible way of ascribing my correlating emotional response to whatever it was they did. Depending on how pleased or displeased I was with a particular situation, then I could effectively express that through a ticket or two.