January has not always been my favorite month.  When we lived in Wisconsin and I had one, two, and then three little boys, it was a long, cold month.  We did enjoy skating on the frozen lakes that we lived by, but only if it wasn't so cold that your toes froze. The other problem with January is illness.  With Camille in our family, January is notorious for illness.  The worst one was a few years ago when she got her tonsils out followed by RSV which turned into pneumonia.  She was EXTREMELY miserable for weeks.  She watched movies basically non-stop and missed a lot of preschool. I can't complain much about the weather this year because it's been mild.  However, it has had some illness.  Currently Camille is suffering with a cold and constant cough.  But here are some reasons why I'm learning to enjoy January: 1.  No more Christmas shopping!  Maybe some people enjoy this.  I'm not one of them.  Actually I did have to return a few gifts near the beginning of th

The original post was written in January of 2015. I wrote an update at the bottom of this post in March 2021. A few months ago, a friend of mine told me about something she was doing in her family to help her family function better.  Her teenage autistic son had been struggling a lot so they had been working with behavior therapists to help him and this "Do Dots Family System" had been recommended.  As she described it, I was greatly intrigued since it sounded like something I wanted to implement at my own house. I looked into it and decided to purchase it right after Thanksgiving.  Here is my review of how it has worked for us over the last six weeks or so. The basic idea of the chart is that children need to take care of their responsibilities before they get any privileges.  It strongly reinforces the concept of "Work Before Play" .  The chart helps children see in a very visual way that, until they have completed their responsibilities, they are on Level